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Watch shadows and dust, Season 1 Episode 6 on Dailymotion (2026).
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00:41It would be incredibly exciting if we were able to pinpoint where Jesus was buried.
00:48From both a historical lens and a lens of faith, this would be meaningful to people all around the world.
00:56Many take for granted that his tomb lies behind the ancient marble walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre
01:03in Jerusalem.
01:06This has been the official story upheld by many Christian officials for thousands of years.
01:13But is faith enough to corroborate real history?
01:18When scholars finally peel back the layers, what they find is astonishing.
01:24Nobody expected this.
01:28Could his tomb be hidden in a peaceful desert garden oasis?
01:33For so many people, this fits the description of the location of where Jesus was initially laid to rest.
01:41And in Talpiot's tomb, could controversial discoveries rewrite what we thought we knew about Jesus' life and his death?
01:51If this turns out to be true, it could change everything.
02:20Today, there are roughly 2.4 billion people in the world.
02:31It's amazing that a random preacher from Judea in the 1st century would become so profoundly important to the history
02:41of the world.
02:43He's one of the most famous people worldwide.
02:48Most of what is known about Jesus comes from biblical texts.
02:53Yet, traces of his life can also be found in the works of ancient historians like Flavius Josephus.
03:01Jesus was a real historical figure.
03:04He was a Jewish, wandering preacher who transformed and created a new faith.
03:12According to the Christian Bible, Jesus is of divine origin.
03:18His birth, a miraculous event.
03:26Born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary, he is conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit, destined to call
03:33God his true father.
03:37Though he is raised in Nazareth by his mother and her husband Joseph, his early life is shrouded in mystery,
03:45with little known about his first few decades.
03:52By around 30 years of age, Jesus has begun to travel the province of Judea, ministering to some of the
04:01poorest, most overlooked people that he becomes a known figure.
04:05So Judea is a Roman province at this time.
04:11It is a place where there are many different cultures all coming together in one location.
04:16The Romans are trying their best to maintain control of the region, but their hold is tenuous.
04:24And all of these things are making Judea a tinderbox of sorts.
04:28Jesus preached about peace, and he preached about well-being, social harmony.
04:37He also criticized the wealthy and politically powerful.
04:41Jesus would have challenged authority in many different ways during his lifetime.
04:46His role as preacher would have been a direct challenge to Jewish authorities at that time.
04:53Roman authorities would have seen him as encouraging rebellion against the Roman state.
05:00And so he would have been a target from multiple angles.
05:06Jesus knows that his message is dangerous, and that it will lead to his death.
05:12He delivers a haunting prophecy to his disciples.
05:18He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things, and that he must be killed, and on the third day
05:25be raised to life.
05:27He prophesies his own death and tells his disciples exactly how it's going to happen and prepares them for it.
05:40And he promises his disciples that, yes, he's going to die, but he's also going to return.
05:48With his words, Jesus transforms his future tomb into a site of great importance.
05:54One where he will perform his last miracle.
06:01Despite such terrible visions and apparent foreknowledge, Jesus insists that they go to Jerusalem.
06:10Jerusalem was a place already associated with spiritual revelation for the Jewish people.
06:18This was where the leaders of the other Jewish sects were.
06:23So, if Jesus is seeking legitimacy, Jerusalem is the place you want to go.
06:33Jesus enters Jerusalem and spends several days preaching, healing the sick, and challenging authority.
06:41All the while sealing his fate with the Roman elite.
06:45During the Last Supper, he reveals to his disciples that he knows one of them will betray him.
06:52In one of the most famous scenes of Jesus' life, he is betrayed by one of his own followers, by
06:59Judas Iscariot,
07:01who brings Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus.
07:05And according to the Gospels, he told the soldiers that the man that he kisses will be the man they're
07:13looking for.
07:14And he goes and he kisses Jesus.
07:19Resigned to his fate, Jesus proclaims that the prophecy will now be fulfilled.
07:26This isn't defeat, but a man voluntarily walking into his own execution.
07:35The Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, sentences Jesus to death.
07:40Crucifixion was often reserved for very, very serious criminals, usually those who had rebelled against the Romans in some form
07:51or fashion.
07:52These crosses are being erected by roadsides on the outskirts of cities to make sure that as many people witness
08:01this horrifying death as possible.
08:04The victim slowly suffocates as they can no longer hold up their own weight and their body falls in on
08:11itself and breathing becomes more and more difficult.
08:15Normally it takes quite some time to die on the cross.
08:20Crucifixion serves as a warning for anyone that this is what happens if you cross the Romans.
08:28Jesus is beaten, mocked, and whipped before being crowned with razor sharp thorns.
08:36He carries his own cross outside the walls of Jerusalem where he is crucified in full public display.
08:45Jesus defies expectations by dying within a few hours.
08:52Yet for the followers of Jesus, his death is not the end of the story.
08:58It's the beginning of one of the greatest mysteries in human history.
09:05What happens next will initiate a 2,000-year search for a lost site.
09:11According to the Gospels, Joseph of Arimathea requests permission to take down Jesus' body to bury him.
09:21This is not something necessarily that the Romans would normally permit because Romans often like to leave the bodies of
09:28crucified victims up for as long as possible to serve as a warning.
09:31But according to Jewish tradition, a Jew needs to be buried quite quickly after death.
09:37And Joseph of Arimathea somehow is able to convince the authorities to let him do this.
09:41So he takes Jesus' body and he's wrapped in linen and he's placed into a stone-cut tomb.
09:52These tombs are underground caves that are hand-cut from the bedrock slopes surrounding the city of Jerusalem.
10:01The body is placed on top of a bench or shelf, also known as a burial bed, that is cut
10:08out of the rock wall of the tomb.
10:11But not everyone who dies is buried like this.
10:15These are reserved for the wealthy and elite of Jerusalem.
10:20According to the Bible, the tomb is sealed with a giant stone, behind which Jesus' body is meant to rest,
10:28only temporarily during the Sabbath.
10:32Yet some gospels claim that three days later, his disciple, Mary Magdalene, arrives to find the heavy stone has been
10:40rolled away and the tomb itself is empty.
11:02Soon, Jesus starts appearing individually to his followers, letting them know that, yes, he's died.
11:10Yes, he's risen, and he is still calling on them to send the message forth.
11:17In addition to his message, he leaves behind something else invaluable, the tomb that proves his victory over death.
11:28Jesus' death and the belief in his resurrection fulfills the prophecy and changes the world.
11:37From Jesus' followers, a new religion takes shape, naming Jesus the Messiah and savior of humanity.
11:47The empty tomb becomes a central symbol in the faith that will become Christianity.
11:54His death and resurrection are moments of validation.
11:58Christ had sacrificed himself for everyone's sins.
12:02Christ is both son of God, but also a human who was the gateway to redemption.
12:12The Greek word for Messiah is Christos, and so Jesus of Nazareth becomes Jesus Christ.
12:21What was once a small Jewish sect that, according to Paul, had around 500 followers during Jesus' life,
12:29will swell to a religion with over 2 billion followers today.
12:39But although Christianity is now the most widely practiced religion in the world,
12:44it is initially met with fear, scorn, and peril.
12:50In the few hundred years after the death of Christ, Christians are not treated well.
12:55They are subject to many accusations.
12:57Cannibalism was one of them, and also treason because they wouldn't worship the emperor.
13:03This persecution drives Christian worship underground,
13:07and the exact location of Christianity's most holy sites disappear into secrecy and fear.
13:17Their whereabouts are further obscured when Jerusalem is largely destroyed in a siege in 70 CE
13:25during the Judeo-Roman wars.
13:30But everything changes in 312 CE, when the Roman emperor Constantine has a seemingly divine experience.
13:40There's three different stories we have.
13:43Constantine is about to go into battle with Maxentius, another rival emperor.
13:50And he has a vision or a dream in which God or someone spoke to him and said,
13:59in this sign, you will conquer.
14:03According to Eusebius, which is the one that most closely associates this with a Christian symbol,
14:08it was a Christian cross.
14:10Other reports suggest it could be the Cairo, which is the first two letters of Christ in Greek overlapping one
14:18another.
14:18Constantine is profoundly moved by this vision, and he orders that the shields of his army be painted with this
14:25symbol.
14:25And he goes into battle the next day, and he triumphs.
14:30From that point onward, Constantine becomes much, much more friendly towards Christianity.
14:39Constantine's conversion doesn't just alter history.
14:42It launches the world's first archaeological hunt.
14:49As part of his religious fervor, Constantine's mother, Helena, travels to Jerusalem with unlimited imperial resources and a divine mission.
15:01Discover the locations of holy sites and relics that offer proof of Christ's story.
15:08While she's in Jerusalem, she seems to stumble upon one relic after another.
15:14She finds the cross of Jesus.
15:16She brings back the stairs from Pontius Pilate's palace, which you can still see in Rome today.
15:26For the faithful, there is no place more holy than the tomb where Jesus had resurrected.
15:31And amazingly, Constantine believes he discovers that tomb.
15:38Some of the earliest details we have about Helena's journey are written by Eusebius, the documentarian of Constantine's life.
15:48According to Eusebius, after Jesus' death, his tomb remained untouched by the Romans for 100 years.
15:58In 135 CE, Emperor Hadrian did the unthinkable.
16:04Perhaps in a bid to stamp out Christianity and erase the memory of Jesus, Hadrian had Jesus' tomb buried and
16:12paved over with stone.
16:16On top of it, he erected a pagan temple dedicated to Venus.
16:22The Temple of Venus remains standing for 200 years until Constantine's representatives come to Jerusalem and are told that Jesus'
16:32tomb is hidden below.
16:35After the discovery, Constantine raises the Temple of Venus to the ground.
16:41Beneath it, the Romans uncover several ancient rock caves, one of which is believed to be the tomb of Jesus
16:48still intact.
16:52They cut away the roof and surrounding walls, leaving only the limestone burial bed, the shelf where Jesus' body was
17:00believed to have laid.
17:06Constantine encloses the burial bed in an eticule, a protective shrine.
17:12Around the eticule, he constructs a church, known today as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
17:21Over the next 800 years, despite earthquakes, fires, and invading forces, the church and eticule are repeatedly rebuilt.
17:36The building that stands today was finished in 1149.
17:41A stone courtyard leads into an enormous circular rotunda with soaring ceilings, marble pillars, and arches.
17:52Four million people visit the basilica each year to worship.
17:56For 2,000 years, this is fact. This is the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest.
18:06But not everyone agrees.
18:08Around the mid-1800s, there is a growing movement of skepticism, particularly among Protestants,
18:14who generate their own interpretations and challenge the Catholic Church's monopoly over religious history.
18:23This skepticism results in a growing suspicion that the site of Jesus' tomb hasn't been proven.
18:34There's no evidence that this is really where the tomb is.
18:38It's just that the Catholic Church, at some point, said this is where it is.
18:43And everyone has been going by that information.
18:49But if the tomb is not underneath the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where is it?
18:57How can anyone hope to identify a place lost nearly 2,000 years ago?
19:05Much like the details of Jesus' life, the primary source scholars have for details of Jesus' death come from the
19:12Bible.
19:15In the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
19:21But the story each Gospel tells is not identical.
19:27Three of the Gospels, so Mark, Matthew, and Luke, are very similar in their accounts,
19:35and seem to have been written around the same time, a few decades after Jesus' death.
19:40The Gospel of John is where we get the most detailed description of Jesus' death.
19:47And it is written later than the others, so it's even more historically removed from the time that Jesus was
19:55actually living.
19:57In seeking evidence for locations mentioned in the Bible, scholars grapple with a difficult question.
20:03Can the Gospels be considered a reliable source of information?
20:10The Gospels of the Bible do contain historical information and facts, but the main purpose was to consolidate the faith
20:23and the movement.
20:24And so details like the exact location of the tomb, they're supposed to live on in a kind of spiritual
20:32imagination rather than serve as a site for people to go look at with their own eyes.
20:40With the location of the tomb hidden in snippets of detail, the intense scrutiny of the clues results in a
20:47centuries-long search with little to show for it.
20:52Despite differences in their retelling of Jesus' death, all four Gospels agree on one thing.
21:05Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and placed it in his own new tomb that
21:11he had cut out of the rock.
21:13He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.
21:19Jesus' body would have been wrapped in linen or some kind of cloth and then it would have been put
21:25aside for a period of time, perhaps a year, so the body could disintegrate.
21:34And that point it could be moved either into an ossuary or another location where it wouldn't take as much
21:40space.
21:42The description of the tomb in the Bible is remarkably consistent with rock cut tombs found by archaeologists.
21:50Evidence from Jewish burials dating to the time of Jesus.
21:55Their design ranges from a single square room to more complex designs with multiple chambers.
22:04That many of them match the descriptions we see in the Bible.
22:08So it's very hard to determine which one could actually be the tomb of Christ.
22:15Investigations also reveal that stones were used to block tomb entrances.
22:21A few tombs have an impressive disc-shaped rolling stone that rolls along a track.
22:28But more common is a stone similar to a cork that wedges into place and blocks the entrance.
22:36It's not clear from the Gospels which type of door Jesus' tomb had.
22:42Even if scholars are certain about what the tomb looks like, how will they know where to look?
22:50The Gospels describe the tomb as being located near the crucifixion site.
22:56And many scholars believe that discovering where Jesus was crucified will lead them to the tomb.
23:05However, the Gospels offer few identifying characteristics, only a name.
23:13It is called Calvary in Latin or Golgotha in Aramaic.
23:19Translated, it means the place of the skull.
23:23Some have suggested that the reason why that place was named that was because it actually resembles a skull.
23:29It could also simply be the place that Romans had been customarily executing criminals.
23:35We don't know.
23:38The Gospels also state that the crucifixion occurs just outside the walls of Jerusalem.
23:45We look at the geography of Jerusalem today and of course it's changed a great deal over time.
23:50So there are a lot of questions because the buildings that have been at times associated with this life are
23:56in fact not in the same place probably.
24:00The Gospels final clue appears only once in the Gospel of John, which states that Jesus was crucified and buried
24:09in a garden.
24:11The information that we have to work with is that there's a stone tomb.
24:17It is somewhere that has to do with skulls in some way.
24:21And there's a garden.
24:23And that's all the information that we have to work with.
24:29In the 19th century, as biblical scholars and gentleman archaeologists traveled to Jerusalem in search of alternatives to the Church
24:38of the Holy Sepulchre,
24:40a location emerges as a contender a mere 600 meters away from the Church.
24:47Lying just north of the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem, it is known as the Garden Tomb.
24:56In 1842, a German theologian named Otto Theinius came across an incredible sight.
25:04Staring at the rocky outcrop of the hill, locally referred to as El Adhamia,
25:11Theinius realizes the hill is staring back at him.
25:18He believes from his interpretation of the Bible that the execution may have taken place from somewhere resembling the shape
25:25of a skull.
25:27And it was also here nearby that he was to be buried.
25:31So he becomes convinced that this is where the real execution of Christ took place.
25:37The hill itself has changed since the 1800s.
25:41But in old photographs, the resemblance to a skull is striking.
25:46Local oral tradition claims this was once near the site of an ancient stone quarry, which may have been used
25:53as a site of executions.
25:56It's possible that the Romans took over this site and started to use this area as a place of crucifixions.
26:05Skull Hill is located outside the city gates along a busy road so that visitors and travelers would bear witness
26:15to it.
26:16So it corresponds to the information that we have from the Gospels as well as it being associated with executions
26:25historically.
26:29Otto Theinius convinces many of his contemporaries that Skull Hill is Golgotha.
26:35He believes that Jesus' tomb must be nearby.
26:4125 years later, in 1867, a Greek landowner living in Jerusalem is digging a cistern on his property when he
26:50hits something he is not expecting.
26:54The exterior of a tomb.
26:59Inside the tomb are two small rooms.
27:02The walls are simple and unadorned, except for one detail.
27:07Two red crosses painted on the interior walls.
27:13The symbols are accompanied by the Greek letters alpha and omega.
27:19Perhaps a reference to a quote from Jesus in the book of Revelation.
27:25I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
27:35These cryptic Greek letters that seem to suggest that continuance from the creation to the end here in the tomb
27:43fit perfectly with this vision of Jesus and his coming return.
27:52The Garden Tomb is very close to Skull Hill.
27:56In fact, it is cut out of the same rocky outcrop.
28:01Almost 20 years after the Garden Tomb's discovery, it is visited by British military hero, General Charles Gordon.
28:10Charles Gordon was something of a celebrity, a renowned general, but also a very devout Christian.
28:20He is so convinced that he starts this very vigorous letter-writing campaign to people in power in England.
28:29And he even remonstrates with Queen Victoria, insisting that ignore the Holy Sepulchre.
28:35This is where Jesus was buried and nowhere else.
28:40After Gordon visits the site, the Garden Tomb is transformed by supporters into a lush green oasis in the desert,
28:47with flowers, olive trees and soothing running water.
28:53Standing in the Garden Tomb, it is serene and peaceful.
28:59And to many people, this place truly feels holy.
29:03That feeling has helped many people build a spiritual connection to the tomb.
29:09This begs the question, although the tomb was found in a tranquil garden, is there any evidence that it was
29:16a garden 2,000 years ago?
29:22Scholars have unearthed potential answers.
29:27They find a cistern and they find a wine press.
29:30So given these two together, this could actually be interpreted as a lush garden.
29:36Incredibly, there is another attribute of the garden tomb that suggests this could be Jesus's burial tomb.
29:44There is a narrow piece of cut rock jutting out of the ground in front of the garden tomb and
29:51across its entrance.
29:53To many people, this looks exactly like tracks of the rolling stone from burials of the first century.
30:02General Gordon and countless others are convinced that this is the burial tomb of Jesus Christ.
30:10However, more recent archaeological findings have questioned this conclusion.
30:17What evidence does tell us is that the track in front of the tomb was more likely a trough that
30:22was connected to the cistern.
30:23So it's possible that this area wasn't actually a garden, but an area used for the storage of livestock.
30:29The cross was not a common Christian symbol in early Christianity.
30:35Before that, it's far more common that Christians would use the Cairo or a fish.
30:42And when we do this analysis, we find that the cross is in fact from the 5th or the 6th
30:47century, so long after the tomb would have been used by Jesus.
30:51All of this is casting more doubt on the idea that the garden tomb was actually the tomb of Jesus.
31:00Conversely, additional studies suggest that most of the tomb is actually older than Gordon first realised.
31:08Archaeologists reveal that it appears to have been cut and used as a burial tomb in the 8th to 7th
31:15century BCE,
31:16which is at least 600 years before the time of Jesus' death.
31:22Of course, there's always a chance that this tomb was reused for Jesus,
31:26but this would contradict what is said in the Gospels, that Jesus was placed in a new tomb.
31:34Today, the Garden Tomb Jerusalem Association makes no claim that this is the authentic tomb of Jesus.
31:42Rather, it presents the site as a possible location.
31:48Half a million people visit this site every year and are deeply moved by it,
31:53both those who believe it is Jesus' tomb and those who see it as a representation of what they hope
32:00it would have looked like.
32:04Archaeological evidence in the Garden Tomb seems to put an end to centuries of confident claims.
32:10But the question remains, where is Jesus' tomb?
32:18Although skeptics of the Church may search for other possibilities,
32:23the Church of the Holy Sepulchre remains a strong contender.
32:29One of the reasons why the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is not thought of as a likely place for
32:35the tomb of Jesus
32:36is because it looks absolutely nothing like it should look according to the Bible.
32:41It's in the middle of an urban environment, it's built up, there's a whole church built on top of it
32:45right now.
32:46But we shouldn't discount the fact that we don't see a garden anymore there as a reason why there might
32:52not have been a garden originally.
32:57Today, visitors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, hoping to see the burial tomb of Jesus,
33:03enter an edicule that was built in the early 1800s.
33:08Just to paint a picture, the edicule is what looks like a mini church within a much bigger church.
33:15So it sits there in the middle of the Holy Sepulchre.
33:19Inside, they find a small room adorned with candles, a shrine, artwork,
33:25and a marble slab alleged to have been placed there since at least 1555 CE.
33:35The actual tomb is behind this marble slab.
33:40It's not visible.
33:41And the church would not open it up because it's a holy site.
33:48However, by 2015, it becomes clear that the 200-year-old edicule is in desperate need of restoration.
33:57The walls of the edicule are buckling inward.
34:01There's a real chance that it could collapse at any moment.
34:07In 2016, a team of conservationists are brought in to do an emergency restoration.
34:14They use the opportunity to finally study the edicule.
34:21This moment is absolutely unprecedented because, for the first time, scholars have access to the innermost area which we've never
34:31seen before.
34:32And what they find is absolutely astounding.
34:36Researchers scanned the buckling marble edicule walls with ground-penetrating radar.
34:43And are shocked to discover a secret hidden within.
34:48A wall within the wall.
34:52It is 1.8 metres high and made of limestone rock.
34:58Even more incredibly, it is connected to the bedrock.
35:04This is an astonishing discovery.
35:07From historical accounts, researchers had assumed the walls of the tomb had been dismantled during the time of Constantine.
35:15Nobody expects to find a wall still standing.
35:18It soon becomes clear that the marble slabs sealing the burial bed must be removed in order to protect what
35:26lies beneath.
35:29Reluctantly, the leaders of various Christian denominations utilizing the church come to an agreement.
35:36But with one condition.
35:40To limit the disruption to pilgrims, researchers will have just 60 hours to complete the work.
35:49This is a nerve-wracking moment.
35:52If it was discovered that there was no evidence of a tomb or anything, it would make it seem as
35:59though they had been promoting a lie for centuries.
36:04For the first time in centuries, the marble covering will be removed, allowing the world to discover what lies beneath.
36:14I can't imagine the pressure that these researchers felt while they were doing this.
36:20If they make one mistake, they're going to be responsible for harming or damaging a site that people around the
36:28world believe is the location of Jesus' tomb.
36:34When the slab is finally removed, researchers find a piece of white rose marble engraved with a cross,
36:40which dates to the 14th century.
36:45Beneath that, another grey marble slab dates to the 4th century.
36:50Going back through time, the researchers have now reached the age of Constantine.
36:56When this final slab is removed, they uncover a shelf of limestone.
37:05Regardless of whether this is the tomb, there is a tomb from the time period of Jesus' lifetime that the
37:12Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built on top of.
37:15Everything matches. It all makes sense.
37:17In 2022, renovations on the Church continue with a painstaking restoration of the Basilica's floor.
37:27Archaeologists again secure permission to investigate, this time digging underneath the Church.
37:37They find this ancient limestone shelf to be part of just one of many rock-hewn tombs, suggesting this area
37:45may once have been a quarry repurposed as a burial ground.
37:50They announce a shocking discovery.
37:55Ancient traces of pollen and seeds suggest that the whole area was once covered with olive trees and grapevines.
38:05Although the archaeologists have yet to confirm the age of the botanical remains, they believe them to be around 2
38:12,000 years old.
38:15This doesn't prove that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the tomb of Jesus Christ, but it does remove
38:21one of the arguments against it.
38:23Most of the time, science and faith take very, very different paths.
38:28In this instance, though, science seems to confirm exactly what people believe in.
38:34And for both believers and non-believers alike, it is an absolutely fascinating story.
38:43Most biblical scholars believe that Jesus died in Jerusalem, as stated in the Bible.
38:50However, not everyone agrees.
38:54Some suggest alternate theories that would rewrite history altogether.
39:03The Rosabal Shrine is a small stone building in downtown Srinagar, India.
39:10The sign recognizes the tomb as the burial site of Yuzsa Asif, who some claim to be a medieval Muslim
39:17preacher.
39:19But others believe it is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.
39:25Jesus is a figure as well in Islamic scripture.
39:31And within one sect, Amadea in India, they believe, based on the discovery of two footprints that shows evidence of
39:41crucifixion marks on the feet,
39:42that perhaps Jesus escaped to India, where they believe that he lived to the ripe old age of 120.
39:48This is incredibly controversial to Christians.
39:52That being said, this particular sect does have 10 million followers.
39:59Yet India is not the only alternative location where it has been claimed Jesus spent his last days.
40:0810,000 kilometers from Jerusalem, in the small Japanese hamlet of Shingo.
40:14A mound of dirt marked with a cross also claims to be Jesus' final resting place.
40:21According to local folklore, Jesus actually escaped crucifixion by trading places with a younger brother who does not appear in
40:34the Bible at all.
40:35And the real Jesus actually makes his way to Japan, where he settles in this village, marries a Japanese woman,
40:45becomes a garlic farmer, and has three daughters.
40:51It seems pretty unlikely that Jesus ended up in Shingo.
40:58Far more likely is that the burial tomb there can be traced back to a Christian missionary who's known to
41:07have been in the region in the 16th century.
41:12The alternate theories are intriguing, but could Jesus really have died and been buried outside Jerusalem?
41:21Neither of these alternative locations have much archaeological evidence or a basis in the Bible.
41:29The fact that there are so many different stories about Jesus perhaps having his final resting place in some other
41:36locations in the world shows how powerful an idea of the figure of Jesus really is and that he is
41:43reinterpreted again and again by cultures around the world, by different peoples in different time periods.
41:47And the idea of being close to the physical location of the final resting place of Jesus is a powerful
41:56idea and it seems to pop up again and again and again.
42:02Back in Jerusalem, however, another site threatens to undermine the faith of millions.
42:08The biggest challenge with the garden tomb and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is that there is no physical
42:14evidence that can tie Jesus Christ to either of these locations.
42:20March 1980, a new residential suburb is being constructed in East Talpiot, two kilometers south of ancient Jerusalem.
42:31A charge is set off in the side of a rocky hill.
42:38As the dust settles, it reveals the gleaming white limestone facade of a tomb and a gaping hole leading inside.
42:49Archaeologists enter the tomb and discover that it is completely intact.
42:56Hand cut into the bedrock, it consists of a large square chamber branching out into six burial shafts.
43:05Inside the shafts, they find 10 ossuaries.
43:09Osseries are often small rectangular limestone chests used to preserve the bones of loved ones.
43:17These are only used in Jerusalem for less than 100 years, between around 20 BCE to 70 CE.
43:25So this immediately dates the tomb to right around the time of Jesus' life.
43:33Six of the 10 ossuaries are inscribed with the names of their occupants.
43:37One of the ossuaries has a name inscribed on it.
43:42In Aramaic, it says,
43:44Yeshua bar Yehoseph,
43:47translated,
43:48Jesus, son of Joseph.
43:50When news of this discovery gets out, it's absolutely earth shattering because it seems to be the clearest evidence ever
44:01that this could be the location of Jesus' burial.
44:03It translates to Jesus, son of Joseph. So who else could it be?
44:08The ossuary contains traces of human bone. Could these be the remains of Jesus of Nazareth?
44:16If the bones belonged to Jesus, it would mean Jesus' body was laid to rest here permanently, and that he
44:23did not resurrect.
44:25That contradicts the most central tenet of Christian faith, the idea that Jesus was resurrected.
44:32And for many people, that is not something that they're willing to accept.
44:37We know that this tomb contains ten ossuaries, but that leads us to ask the question, who else is buried
44:45here?
44:46A second ossuary found in the Talbiot tomb is inscribed, Maria, a form of Mary.
44:52A third is inscribed, Joses, the same name as Jesus' brother.
44:58Jesus and Joseph, or Jezu and Josephus, were some of the most common Jewish names.
45:05It's like John, son of Bob.
45:07There were many, many Jesuses and many, many Josephs.
45:14But proponents of the Talbiot tomb theory point to one final ossuary to definitively link this tomb with Jesus of
45:22Nazareth.
45:23Another one of the burials within that same tomb is marked Mary Amini.
45:29And some people think that this might, in fact, be Mary Magdalene.
45:33The role of Jesus' famous disciple, Mary Magdalene, and the nature of her relationship with Jesus,
45:41is one that causes much speculation and controversy, both within and outside of Christianity.
45:50There are many depictions of her, but they are overwhelmingly of a prostitute who is known for anointing Jesus' feet.
46:01But this is a real misrepresentation that can be traced back to Pope Gregory I, who declared her a sinful
46:09woman,
46:10and this leads people to start conflating her with outcasts from the Bible.
46:15But there's historical evidence that Mary Magdalene was actually a noblewoman,
46:21and the intimacy between them in the Bible is actually pointing to a romantic relationship.
46:30If this is an ossuary of Mary Magdalene, then this could indicate a much closer relationship than we've come to
46:36understand.
46:38The Bible contains no direct claim that Jesus had taken a wife, but they also offer no definitive statement that
46:45he hadn't.
46:48Some say the answer to the Mary Magdalene mystery lies in the fifth ossuary.
46:55Here, an inscription reads,
46:57Yehuda bar Yeshua, or Judas, son of Jesus.
47:03This really plays into a narrative that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were essentially a married couple.
47:11That, of course, then gives rise to the whole idea of a sacred bloodline of Christ that may still be
47:17amongst us.
47:18Now, most mainstream historians completely reject this, but if we accept this idea, this really throws open the whole question
47:28of Jesus' nature, what Jesus was, who he was.
47:33These are bold claims.
47:35But is there any way to test the theory beyond the names on the ossuaries?
47:44In the mid-2000s, a limited form of DNA testing is conducted on dry bone fragments found at the bottom
47:51of the Jesus and Mary Amini ossuaries.
47:55The test results reveal that Jesus and Mary Amini are not related, at least not maternally.
48:03This confirms that they were not brother and sister, nor mother and son.
48:08They could be father and daughter, but it could also potentially suggest they were husband and wife.
48:16Outside of the DNA analysis, the Talbiot tomb raises several questions.
48:22One of the criticisms is that Jesus and his family were not high-status, wealthy individuals, and so it's very
48:29unlikely that their family would have been able to afford such a tomb.
48:33Another criticism is that there is no ossuary that is discovered that indicates an individual named Joseph.
48:41What would this mean if this were truly the tomb of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and their secret son?
48:49If we decide that this ossuary contains the human remains of Jesus, it doesn't correspond to the story that has
49:00been at the heart of this religion for centuries.
49:05Is the Talbiot tomb a bombshell discovery that rewrites our understanding of Jesus, or do its ossuaries merely contain the
49:14remains of a family with some common yet coincidental names?
49:20The search for Jesus' tomb can make all of us sometimes feel uncomfortable.
49:27It makes perhaps people who are strictly approaching it from a skeptical point of view feel uncomfortable because you can't
49:34not use elements of faith and the gospels as sources.
49:38It certainly makes people who are of faith uncomfortable because it seems to suggest that science is trying to disprove
49:44a major tenet of their faith.
49:46But it also shows that beyond all of that, the idea of Jesus is something that continues to hold a
49:55massive amount of fascination for just about everybody in modern society.
50:00And finding something like the tomb of Jesus would be profoundly moving regardless of whether you're coming at it from
50:09a point of view of faith or a point of view of science.
50:14There will always be a desire to seek the absolute proof about the life and death of Jesus.
50:23As part of that search, clues from the gospels, history and science have pointed to three possible locations of what
50:31would be the most holy site of all.
50:35The burial tomb of Jesus.
50:39The holy sepulchre steeped in history now finds an ally in modern science.
50:46The garden tomb, with its peaceful aura, serves as a manifestation for many of what they believe the tomb should
50:54be.
50:56And the Talpiot tomb, deeply controversial but incredibly compelling, suggests an alternate ending for the greatest story ever told.
51:08We may never know the location of Jesus' tomb with absolute certainty, but there are always those who will search
51:16for it.
51:18But for others, the belief in the unknowable is one of the core tenets of faith.
51:25For them, the meaning and the message of Jesus' life and death is not tied to a physical place, but
51:33its spiritual and personal significance.
51:40To be continued...