Joe Zias

Last updated
Joe Zias
Born
Joseph Edward Zias
Citizenship Israel
Education Wayne State University (MA, Anthropology)
Occupation(s)Anthropologist, paleopathologist
Years active1972–2007
Employer Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA)
OrganizationCenturyOne Foundation
TitleCurator of Archaeology and Anthropology for the IAA
Term1972-1997

Joseph E. Zias, most commonly cited as Joe Zias, was the Curator of Archaeology and Anthropology for the Israel Antiquities Authority from 1972 until his retirement in 1997, [1] with responsibility for items such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, pre-historic human skeletal remains, and artifacts from archaeological sites such as Jericho, Megiddo, and Gezer. [2] He has appeared often in film and television documentaries regarding such artifacts and the subject of the Historical Jesus, including The Mysterious Man of the Shroud for CBS, Who Killed Jesus on BBC in 1997 [1] and Son of God on BBC in 2001, and is a frequent lecturer.

Contents

Work

Tomb of Absalom inscriptions

In 2003, Zias and Émile Puech discovered two mid-4th-century inscriptions on the 1st-century monument known as the Tomb of Absalom, which support the concept known from Byzantine period sources that a tradition existed at the time, wrongly identifying the funeral monument as the tomb of James, the brother of Jesus; Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist; and Simeon, the old priest from the Gospel of Luke. [3]

Shroud of Turin

The PBS documentary Secrets of the Dead: Shroud of Christ, which aired in April 2004, presented new and controversial claims that the Shroud of Turin was the authentic burial cloth of Jesus. Several experts disputed these opinions, since carbon-dating tests performed in 1988 placed its origin 1300 years too late. Specifically, Zias noted that the shroud depicts a man whose front measures 2 inches taller than his back and said, "Not only is it a forgery, but it's a bad forgery." [4]

Megiddo church

In 2005, archaeologist Yotam Tepper was in charge of a dig near Megiddo, Israel, uncovering the ruins of what was clearly an early Christian church. The IAA, Zias's former employer, claimed that the site could be dated to the third century A.D., which would make it the earliest Christian church unearthed in the Holy Land, and possibly one of the earliest in the world, older even than the edict of Emperor Constantine which legalized Christian worship. Zias, however, disagreed in print: "My gut feeling is that we are looking at a Roman building that may have been converted to a church at a later date." [5] At a time when Roman authorities still prohibited Christian practice,"If I were a Roman soldier in the third century, I certainly wouldn't want my name on it," he said. "This would not have been a good career move. In fact, it sounds like the kiss of death." Historian Yisca Harani was similarly skeptical, wondering why early church historians would fail to mention a successful place of worship, if it were one. [5]

Masada: human remains

Years after archaeologist Yigael Yadin literally wrote the book on Masada, claiming that human remains found at the site were those of the last Jewish defenders of the stronghold, which led the Israeli government to provide them a formal state burial in 1969, Zias and forensic expert Azriel Gorski presented evidence that the remains may, in fact, have been those of Roman occupiers. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer, who participated in Yadin's Masada dig and later oversaw restoration work there, disputed the new findings, saying that Zias was "building a story on assumptions built on assumptions." [6] Similarly, Zias said that the original team "had the story and went around trying to find the proof." [6]

Talpiot Tomb

Regarding the Discovery Channel program The Lost Tomb of Jesus, produced by director James Cameron and created by Simcha Jacobovici, which proposed that the Talpiot Tomb site was the actual tomb of Jesus and his family, Zias has said, "Projects like these make a mockery of the archeological profession." [7] These and later comments by Zias led Jacobovici to sue for libel, winning a judgment of NIS  800,000 from a Jerusalem court in 2015. [8] The press noted, however, that the decision "did not rule that Jacobovici's assertions were correct, just that Zias… had gone too far in his criticisms." [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masada</span> Ancient hilltop fortification in Israel

Masada is an ancient fortification in southern Israel, situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa. It is located on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea 20 km (12 mi) east of Arad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ossuary</span> 1st-century limestone box

The James Ossuary is a 1st-century limestone box that was used for containing the bones of the dead. An Aramaic inscription meaning "Jacob (James), son of Joseph, brother of Jesus" is cut into one side of the box. The ossuary attracted scholarly attention due to its apparent association with the Christian holy family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Hazor</span> Archeological site of an ancient city in Israel

Tel Hazor, also Chatsôr, translated in LXX as Hasōr, named in Arabic Tell Waqqas / Tell Qedah el-Gul, is an archaeological tell at the site of ancient Hazor, located in Israel, Upper Galilee, north of the Sea of Galilee, in the northern Korazim Plateau. From the Middle Bronze Age to the Iron Age, Hazor was the largest fortified city in the region and one of the most important in the Fertile Crescent. It maintained commercial ties with Babylon and Syria, and imported large quantities of tin for the bronze industry. In the Book of Joshua, Hazor is described as "the head of all those kingdoms". Though scholars largely do not consider the Book of Joshua to be historically accurate, archaeological excavations have emphasized the city's importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of Absalom</span> Ancient monumental rock-cut tomb

The Tomb of Absalom, also called Absalom's Pillar, is an ancient monumental rock-cut tomb with a conical roof located in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem, a few metres from the Tomb of Zechariah and the Tomb of Benei Hezir. Although traditionally ascribed to Absalom, the rebellious son of King David of Israel, recent scholarship has dated it to the 1st century AD.

A nefesh is a Semitic monument placed near a grave so as to be seen from afar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Ussishkin</span> Israeli archaeologist

David Ussishkin is an Israeli archaeologist and professor emeritus of archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judaean Desert</span> Desert in the southern Levant

The Judaean Desert or Judean Desert is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that lies east of the Judaean Mountains, so east of Jerusalem, and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, it has been nominated to the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in the State of Palestine, particularly for its monastic ruins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel Exploration Society</span>

The Israel Exploration Society (IES), originally the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, is a society devoted to historical, geographical and archaeological research of the Land of Israel. The society was founded in 1913 and again in 1920, with the object of studying the history and civilization of the Land of Israel and of disseminating its knowledge.

The Jesus bloodline refers to the proposition that a lineal sequence of the historical Jesus has persisted, possibly to the present time. The claims frequently describe Jesus as having married, often to Mary Magdalene, and as having descendants living in Europe, especially France but also the UK. Differing and contradictory Jesus progeny scenarios, as well as more limited claims that Jesus married and had children, have been proposed in numerous modern books. Some such claims have suggested that Jesus survived the crucifixion and went to another location such as France, India or Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simcha Jacobovici</span> Canadian film director

Simcha Jacobovici is a Canadian-Israeli journalist, documentary filmmaker and New York Times best-selling author.

James Daniel Tabor is a Biblical scholar and Professor of Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he has taught since 1989 and served as chair from 2004 to 2014. He previously held positions at Ambassador College, the University of Notre Dame (1979–85), and the College of William and Mary (1985–89). Tabor is the founder and director of the Original Bible Project, a non-profit organisation aimed to produce a re-ordered new translation of the Bible in English. He retired in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Talpiot Tomb</span> Rock-cut tomb in Old City Jerusalem

The Talpiot Tomb is a rock-cut tomb discovered in 1980 in the East Talpiot neighborhood, five kilometers south of the Old City in East Jerusalem. It contained ten ossuaries, six inscribed with epigraphs, including one interpreted as "Yeshua bar Yehosef", though the inscription is partially illegible, and its translation and interpretation is widely disputed. The tomb also yielded various human remains and several carvings.

<i>The Lost Tomb of Jesus</i> TV series or program

The Lost Tomb of Jesus is a pseudoarchaeological docudrama co-produced and first broadcast on the Discovery Channel and Vision TV in Canada on March 4, 2007, covering the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb. It was directed by Canadian documentary and film maker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Felix Golubev and Ric Esther Bienstock, while James Cameron served as executive producer. The film was released in conjunction with a book about the same subject, The Jesus Family Tomb, issued in late February 2007 and co-authored by Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino. The documentary and the book's claims have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of leading experts within the archaeological and theological fields, as well as among linguistic and biblical scholars.

<i>The Jesus Family Tomb</i> 2007 book by Charles R. Pellegrino

The Jesus Family Tomb: The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History (ISBN 0061192023) is a controversial book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles R. Pellegrino published in February 2007. It tells the story of the discovery of the Talpiot Tomb on Friday March 28, 1980 and makes an argument that it is the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family.

Nachman Ben-Yehuda is a professor emeritus and former dean of the department of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ehud Netzer</span> Israeli archaeologist

Ehud Netzer was an Israeli architect, archaeologist and educator, known for his extensive excavations at Herodium, where in 2007 he found the tomb of Herod the Great; and the discovery of a structure defined by Netzer as a synagogue, which if true would be the oldest one ever found.

The Naked Archaeologist is a television series on VisionTV in Canada and History International in the US, that was produced and hosted by the Emmy Award–winning journalist Simcha Jacobovici. There is also an Israeli version, broadcast on Channel 8 (Israel), that was co-hosted by Avri Gilad. The show examines biblical stories and tries to find proof for them by exploring the Holy Land looking for archaeological evidence, personal inferences, deductions, and interviews with scholars and experts.

<i>The Jesus Scroll</i> 1972 book by Donovan Joyce

The Jesus Scroll is a best-selling book first published in 1972 and written by Australian author Donovan Joyce. A forerunner to some of the ideas later investigated in The Da Vinci Code, Joyce's book made the claim that Jesus of Nazareth may have actually died aged 80 at Masada near the Dead Sea, site of the last stand made by Jewish zealot rebels against the Roman Empire, after the Fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jodi Magness</span> American Biblical scholar

Jodi Magness is an archaeologist, orientalist and scholar of religion. She serves as the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She previously taught at Tufts University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megiddo church (Israel)</span> Archaeological and religious site

Megiddo church, near Tel Megiddo, Israel, is an archaeological site which preserves the foundations of one of the oldest church buildings ever discovered by archaeologists, dating to the 3rd century AD. The ‘Megiddo Church’, as the room became known, was dated to circa 230 AD on the basis of pottery, coins, and the inscriptional style. The site’s abandonment, circa 305 AD, is evident in the purposeful covering of the mosaic, and relates well to the crisis of 303 AD, when the Christian communities of Judea experienced the Diocletianic Persecution.

References

  1. 1 2 "Meet Joe Zias". CenturyOne Foundation. 2004. Archived from the original on 11 February 2012. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  2. ↑ Zias, Joe. "Curriculum vitae". Joe Zias - Science and Archaeology Group. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Zias, Joe Edward; Puech, Émile (December 2005). "The Tomb of Absalom Reconsidered". Near Eastern Archaeology . 68 (4): 149–165. doi:10.1086/NEA25067622 . Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  4. ↑ Vergano, Dan (6 April 2004). "Controversy revisits Shroud of Turin". USA Today. Gannett Company. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  5. 1 2 Myre, Greg (7 November 2005). "Israeli Prisoners Dig Their Way to Early Christianity". New York Times. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  6. 1 2 "Israeli Scientists: Masada Bodies Are Roman, Not Jewish". Fox News. NewsCorp. Associated Press. 25 June 2007. Archived from the original on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  7. ↑ Medved, Michael (11 March 2007). "Scene 1: Discredit religion; Scene 2: See Scene 1". USA Today . Gannett Company. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
  8. ↑ Winer, Stuart (9 June 2015). "'Naked Archaeologist' Jacobovici wins libel case". The Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 4 April 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  9. ↑ Reiner, Reggie (14 June 2015). "Simcha Jacobovici Wins Lawsuit Over Jesus Tomb". Jewish Business News. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.