According to Xian faith, Jesus then ascended to heaven, in theory, the ascensio

n may have been spiritual, leaving the body behind. In fact those who take a s
trictly historical approach to xianity would expect to find to bones of Christ i
n his family tomb.
If the ossuary did in fact, house the bones of Jesus, then the rest of the coff
in must pertain to the remaining members of the Jesus family. On the other five
ossuraries, reported to have inscriptions, we should only expect to find names
from the family tree of Jesus.
Jesus, was the son of Mary and Joseph, but what many people don t know is that acc
ording to Xian tradition, he had two sisters, Mariam and Salome, ad the Gospel
of Matthew tells us he had four brothers., Simon, Judah, James and Joseph. His a
doptive father, Joseph, was descended from King David, but Joseph most likely d
ied in Nazareth, and would have been buried there and not in Jerusalem. Jesus mo
ther Mary, Maria in antiquity, was also of Davidic descent, but unlike Joseph, a
ccording to later Xian tradition, she died in Jerusalem; and within the same tom
b as Jesus, son of Joseph a second name was discovered. The ossuary is housed in t
he basement of the IAA museum.
Found in the same tomb as Jesus, son of Joseph . Throughout history, from the firs
t greek writings of Mark, the earliest gospel, the Virgin Mary s name has come dow
n to us in one form, Maria, it is a Latinized version of the Hebrew, Miriam. Aft
er Jesus death Mary continued with his teaching, and must have gathered a large f
ollowing. In a time of religious transition, Roman congrates also began to follo
w the teachings of Jesus as so as his popularity grew among his followers, Mary s
names was Latinized, and is why the gospels use her name as such. Written in He
brew, the name Maria is exceptionally rare, but is exactly what was found in the
Talpiot Tomb.
If archaeologist in the 1980s had believed they had found the tomb of Jesus, wha
t other name would they have expected to find? One other name found in the tomb
was Matia, a shorter version of the name Matityahu, the Hebrew from which we der
ive the English name, Matthew. The name, at first doesn t seem to fit with the Jes
us family.
The New Testament is made up of the writings of four gospels, attributed to Matt
hew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew, the evangelist was a disciple of Jesus, but n
ot a blood member of his family. However, there is reason to believe there were
many Matthews within the Jesus family.
But there are two genealogies of Jesus, most read the formal genealogy of Joseph
, Jesus adoptive father. Basically it is a list of all the kings of Israel, well
know great historic names. However, another genealogy is embedded in Luke, chapt
er 3; the genealogy of Mary, Jesus mother, in which are several Matthews; Matthat
hiah, Maat, Mathihas, Mahhat. It is a Maccabean name, commonly associated with K
ings and priests. Seemingly, its is not strange that Matthew appears in the tomb
, indeed, other biblical names such as Isaiah or Jonah would have disqualified t
he tomb. Every single name fits to the biblical story, related to the gospels, t
here is no analogous name, such as Daniel, or Isaac.
Then, another name was discovered. This inscription depicts Yosshah, a diminutiv
e of Yohsef. If we were talking in English, the appearance of a Joseph would ind
eed be interesting, but this isn t a Jospeh, it s a Yohsef. In Hebrew, Yoshi, is ver
y common as an alternative for the Latin Yosef, but Yosshah, would never be hear
d, nor would it be in antiquity. But we do know this name from somewhere else.
In the gospel of Mark, Jesus has a brother, people don t all know Jesus had brothe
rs, the Catholic Church calls them cousins, others they were step brothers, but
biblical scholars are generally agreed that the two men were brothers, the gosp
el names for four brothers, James, Joseph, Jude and Simon. But the Joseph in Ma
rk, the earliest gospel, isn t Joseph, it s Yosshah.
Now we have, Jose, a rare nickname given to the brother of Jesus, Maria, a rare
Latinized version of Mary, used in the gospels to refer to Jesus mother, Matia, a
name that, as it happens, was common in Mary s family, and Jesus, son of Joseph.
Then a fifth ossuary was discovered, bearing a another inscription. The inscript
ion has two parts, the second reads Mara, the first part is a diminutive of Mari
amne. This Mariamne, is Mary Magdalene. Mary comes down to use from the New Test
ament, not just as a name, but as a title. Mary s second name is not Magdalene, bu
t rather a description of her birthplace. Magdala, an important trading town on
the southern shore of the Wets Bank. In Magdala they spoke Greek, as well as Heb
rew. Christian tradition dictates that Mary Magdalene and her brother Peter were
preachers to the Greek speaking Jews, and it is quite likely that Mary s family a
nd followers would have written her name in Greek. The Mariamne ossuary is the o
nly inscription from the Talpiot Tomb forund in Greek.
Mary was an extremely important woman in the early movement of Jesus. Before lat
er changes, women were ordained as preachers, and Mary was considered by her con
temporaries as a great teacher after the death of Christ. She preached, taught a
nd baptised others, and even carried the title Apostle.
In Aramaic, Mara, means master. Even today, if we visited the Armenian quarters
of Jerusalem the preachers there would be Mar Samuel, Lord, Master, etc. and in
the Acts of Phillip, Mary s name is spelt Mariamne.