Fact or Fiction? Lost Tomb of Jesus

Dr. Tabor, the scholar that was consulted for the book, The Jesus Family Tomb and the docudrama film, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, now offers fresh ideas on his blog that Jesus was married because Paul didn't mention him being single or married. A snip from his blog 05/01/07:

"I think one can conclude that if Paul had known Jesus to have been single or unmarried, living a celibate life, he would have mentioned it prominently. In fact it would have been one of his main points. It would have been irresistible. He mounts every possible defense of celibacy, but in the end is only able to appeal to his own example. Imagine how much more rigorously he could have argued had he been able to say, “follow me here, as I follow Christ.” In this particular case I think his silence is “deafening.” As with Cephas, the other apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, he knows that having a wife as a companion is the norm and pattern in the group. Paul must have known that Jesus was married, and he, as our earliest witness, would surely have been in a position to know. When he can use the teachings of Jesus or the example of Jesus he does. Here is an obvious example where he can not.

There's a problem with this line of speculative thinking. The logic is: Since it isn't mentioned, and there's no evidence for it, the opposite must be true. If we carry the same logic throughout the works of Paul, we start facing all kinds of conclusions about different topics regarding Jesus.

1. First, let's understand that 1 Corinthians was a long letter. Originally, it didn't have any chapters or verse numbers.
   
2. Second, Paul was writing about lawsuits (1 Cor 6) among believers just a couple of paragraphs before he talked about being single (1 Cor 7).
   
3. Third, now let's apply the logic that Dr. Tabor uses on 1 Cor 6. Since Paul never mentioned Jesus suing anyone or not suing anyone, Jesus must have sued someone.
   
4. Fourth, let's use Dr. Tabor's logic on 1 Cor 6:12 where it talks about sexual immorality. Since Jesus is not mentioned specifically as someone that was sexually immoral, or vice versa, then He probably conducted sexual immorality.
   

The fact is, the Bible does not say that Jesus was married. In fact, His love for the people of the world was based on agape love, the unconditional love that a father would have towards a child. [Jn 3:16; John 13:35] What Tabor is suggesting is that Jesus had eros love towards someone, which is not only speculative, but lacks any textual evidence in the Bible.

It's very easy to see now why Dr. Tabor chose to be part of the The Lost Tomb of Jesus docudrama.

For a resource that reviews The Lost Tomb of Jesus and The Jesus Family Tomb, the following book is available:

Labels: james tabor, Jesus, jesus dynasty, Jesus family tomb, lost tomb of Jesus, talpiot, talpiyot