Opinions

The recent announcement that tombs of Jesus and family members including a son discovered in the 1980's and abandon years ago as non authentic by most scholars have risen to be this years "religious bonanza."

While interesting and not threatening to a true believer my research indicates a close to zero chance they are really the burial place of Mary Magdalene, Mary Jesus mother Matthew the son of Jesus and others. the evidence follows:

1) Jewish beliefs at the time of Jesus as even now, sees death as a normal part of life. In Jesus' era most Jews were buried in family caves, NOT caskets that was a Greek thing.

2 )Good was seen as a slow decay of the body through excoriation literally sending the body back "to the ancestors - back to earth.

3 )When the body was totally decayed, the bones were removed and put into a common unlabeled box the ossury. this was common throughout the middle east and still is today.

4 )Coffins as in this story are found only in Greco-roman communities.

5 )Inscriptions as in this case were seen as tacky at best. In Isiah 22 the Prophets chastises a royal leader for having an inscription on his tomb, the idea is your individually is gone in death the goal is to become like the rest of the travelers.

What are these relics?

I think if they are not out and out hocks that they come from a very late period when some Gnostic group used them as a way to demonstrate their beliefs.