Is THIS the actual tomb of Christ's FAMILY?

Geologist claims new proof of authenticity.

A geologist claims to have new proof that a controversial discovery in Jerusalem is linked to Jesus Christ. The controversy surrounds Talpiot Tomb, which was discovered in 1980 with nine boxes alleged to belong to people closely associated with Jesus.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Sometime in the 1970s, an Israeli antiquities dealer purchased an ancient ossuary or burial box. The box had a curious inscription, reading "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus." The box, or ossuary is today known as the James ossuary.

Skeptics immediately rejected the find as a forgery because everyone knows that Joseph had no other children besides Jesus. Authorities in Israel even claimed that the part that read, "brother of Jesus" was a forgery and charged the dealer with a crime. A court in 2012 however ruled the prosecution failed to prove its case.

Then in 1980, a tomb was discovered in Jerusalem, which had been buried under soil and preserved for two thousand years. The tomb was dubbed the Talpiot Tomb after the area where it was found. Inside the tomb were ten burial boxes, and all had bones inside. What most surprised archaeologists was that six of the boxes had names from the Gospels written on them.

There were also bones on the floor of the tomb, scattered about, suggesting the tomb had been raided at one point.

One inscription may refer to Mary Magdalene, another to her son. Did these boxes contain the remains of the earliest saints?

But there was no consensus over the find. One concern raised by Christians was if the findings were authentic, then what did that mean about the stories in the Bible? If some of the bones from the tomb belonged to Jesus, then what does that mean about the Resurrection?

To help crack the case, geologist Aryeh Shimron worked to study both the Talpiot Tomb and the James ossuary. Specifically, he studied soil residue on the burial boxes and came to a startling conclusion, the boxes matched.

The match suggests the James ossuary also came from the Talpiot Tomb.

Does the Talpoit Tomb belong to the first Christians, those same people mentioned in the Gospel?

It remains unlikely. A statistical study intended to prove that the unique combination of names in the tomb couldn't happen by chance proved the opposite. In fact, researchers discovered another family with people going by the same names, "Jesus, Simon, Mary, Judah," and so on was living nearby within the first century following the death of Christ. The combination of names in the tomb therefore, proved little.

The findings in the tomb also conflict with the resurrection narrative which says Jesus was buried alone in a tomb, was not placed into a box, and the tomb's entrance was protected by a large rolling stone. The Talpiot Tomb bears no similarities to the Biblical account, making it impossible to believe. 

It is most likely the tomb is a remarkable coincidence, and nothing more.

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