Jacobovici and Tabor and a burial cave

AND THE BURIAL CAVE had Jesus in it, of course. This sounds kind of interesting, but I don't have time to think about it right now. Mark Goodacre has a summary post on the current state of play: Jacobovici and Tabor link burial cave to Jesus' disciples. James McGrath also notes their forthcoming book and seizes the opportunity to plug his own book as well: The Jesus Discovery and The Burial of Jesus. Mark and James have put much more effort into following such things than I have, so I will just echo their very sensible wait-and-see attitude, and keep an eye on how the story develops.

UPDATE: That was quick: Eric Meyers’ review of “The New Jesus Discovery” (ASOR blog). Excerpt:

The book is truly much ado about nothing and is a sensationalist presentation of data that are familiar to anyone with knowledge of first-century Jerusalem. Nothing in the book “revolutionizes our understanding of Jesus or early Christianity” as the authors and publisher claim, and we may regard this book as yet another in a long list of presentations that misuse not only the Bible but also archaeology.

(HT Robert Cargill on FB.)

Also, James Tabor has posted a related essay at the Bible and Interpretation website: A Preliminary Report of a Robotic Camera: Exploration of a Sealed 1st Century Tomb in East Talpiot, Jerusalem.

It seems very likely that followers of Jesus were moved to do what other Jews eschewed—in testimony to their faith in Jesus’ resurrection. Clearly the Jonah image and the Greek inscription, in such close proximity to a tomb with names corresponding to Jesus and his family, should cause us to reexamine some of the other ossuary inscriptions that Eliezar Sukenik, Bellarmino Bagatti, and others have identified as Christian—some of which are in the close geographical proximity to the Talpiot tombs.

I'm too busy to do more that sit back and watch this one.

UPDATE: Keep an eye on the ASOR blog, which seems to have become the informal central clearinghouse for scholarly responses to The New Jesus Discovery and related matters.