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Following the blockbuster bestseller The Da Vinci Code which made sensational claims of Jesus' marriage and a child, a new book just released has equally explosive claims.
A new book and television documentary claiming Jesus Christ's tomb has been discovered and that he and Mary Magdalene had a
son has drawn worldwide scepticism from religious and scientific groups.
But the man behind the controversial claim says he stands behind his work and so far the critics have failed to "punch any holes" in his evidence.
The Jesus Family Tomb, written by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, details their journey to prove a connection between a first century burial tomb in Jerusalem and Jesus and his family.
The story began in 2003 when, while studying some ancient burial boxes, or ossuaries, Jacobovici came across one with the inscription "Jesus son of Joseph".
An Israeli antiquities expert told Jacobovici that along with that ossuary were 10 others in the same family tomb including ones inscribed Joseph, Matthew, and two marked Mary.
However, he told Jacobovici the find was unremarkable in that all names, especially Mary, were common at the time and one of the Marys was written as Mariamne -- a name not associated with Jesus.
But the coincidence of all those names grouped together sparked Jacobovici's interest and a quick internet search found recent academic research which he said lent weight to the claim that Mary Magdalene may have used the name Mariamne.
The book further says another ossuary found in the same tomb had the inscription "Judah, son of Jesus".
That no one had ever heard of Jesus' son could be explained so the authors say by the fact that it was common practice for children of people seen as a threat to the Roman powers to be executed along with their parents.
Therefore the existence of the son may have been a carefully guarded secret among Jesus' followers.
Despite early evidence of one of the major discoveries of all time, film maker and journalist Jacobovici told NZPA he remained sceptical about what he had found.
"The part of me as a human being gets excited but the other part that is a journalist has to always be sceptical.
"So when I saw the first ossuary with the inscription 'Jesus son of Joseph' part of me said 'Wow', but the other part of me said hold on."
He hired a statistician who calculated the chances of all those names appearing within the same tomb at about one in 600.
Jacobovici also had DNA from the ossuaries labelled Jesus and Mariamne tested, showing neither were related -- something he says would not have been expected from a family tomb and pointed to the possibility they were married and had a child.
Jacobovici insisted the evidence proved the book was no fantasy like the Da Vinci Code -- which claimed Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and they had a daughter, whose lineage still survived today.
"This is not a product of my imagination -- people can huff and they can puff, but the tomb is a fact.
"The ossuaries in it are a fact. The inscriptions on six of them are a fact. The Jesus son of Joseph inscription is a fact," Jacobovici said.
" (The group names on the ossuaries) is not only not common, it's not even rare. It's unique."
However criticism of the book and documentary has been overwhelming.
At last count about 44,000 websites had been created concerning the find, with the majority ridiculing Jacobovici and his colleagues.
"I'm not naive, I know that if you make a claim that you've found the tomb of Jesus and his entire family practically, including his DNA, people are going to take notice and some people are going to be very very critical."
But Jacobovici said what had surprised him was how little response there had been to what he called "the hard facts" of his investigation.
"A lot of it has been just personal, from people you would think were scholars -- which in a way makes me feel good.
"It makes me feel good because it means we really did our job well," he said.
"And if there was one hole to punch in it they would have punched it.
"But nobody's been able to punch any holes in our investigation, so when people start saying 'Hey, you did it for the money', for me it puts a smile on my face because to me they've got nothing."
Jacobovici predicted eventually there would be more research conducted around the Jerusalem tomb, now that his team had opened this particular religious can of worms.
"I think there's going to be more attempts to study the tomb closer -- for example with infrared technology to see if there are more inscriptions on the wall.
"Because potentially it could say Jesus was the best bread maker in Jerusalem and that would be the end of the story. Or it could say Jesus, King of the Jews; or Jesus, Messiah ," he said.
"You can only ridicule the messenger for so long, but I think also serious people are beginning to weigh in and they are beginning to say, 'Well these guys have brought this up. Why don't we have some follow up'?
"I think that's going to happen and when it does happen I hope to be there and do my job as a film-maker, writer, journalist, and see this job to the end."
- NZPA
