GEZA VERMES was also at the Talpiot tomb seminar and he e-mails the following:

Like Jim Tabor, I, too, attended the Princeton symposium held in Jerusalem on "Jewish views of the afterlife and burial practices in Second Temple Judaism", subtitled, "Evaluating the Talpiot tomb in context". Many of the papers delivered on the main subject (afterlife and burials) were illuminating. In my judgement, the arguments advanced in favour of the Talpiot burial chamber being the family tomb of Jesus of Nazareth are not just unconvincing but insignificant. Discounting a handful, headed by Tabor and Simcha Jacobovici, the maker of the documentary, "The lost tomb of Jesus", most of the fifty or so participants shared this opinion. Among them figured leading archaeologists such as Amos Kloner (who published the results of the Talpiot excavations), Eric Meyer, Jodi Magness and Joe Zias. Scholars being scholars, they were bound to ask for further research. However, as things are, the matter is and, short of substantial new discoveries, must remain closed. The press's claim that the experts were deeply divided is a distortion of the truth.

He also points to more information on the Talpiot tomb controversy at Stephen Pfann's JesusTombExposed.com site.