When I first got interested in Israel and the Jewish foundations of my faith, I liked looking at all kinds of sources.   After many years of being in ministry and meeting various people I’ve got more discernment of sorting out what’s sensationalism, what’s just weird and what has value to history of our background as believers in the Jewish Messiah.   Today I worry that I have seen my friends in the UK and the US often may get excited about something that could have an agenda.

Ages ago I heard about the Talpiyot tomb which is being portrayed by a fringe movement of historians like Professor James Tabor as new possible site where a grave of Yeshua (Jesus) could of been.    The tomb that Jesus was given from Joseph of Aramathea known today as ‘The Garden Tomb’ (see footnote) is most likely the correct one, but there are other possible locations I’ve seen that were intended as tombs for more wealthy Jews of that time.

From Tabor’s web site:-

The crucial point here is this tomb had bones in.   These are remains of Jews may be roughly contemporary with Christ and his disciples, but not the bones of Yeshua.   To proclaim it is, would be to say that the resurrection never happened.    If James Tabor is a believer he needs to repent and accept Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection.    If he’s not a believer Christians should have nothing to do with him.

I’m also quite familiar with the location of Tabor and Jacobovici’s own tomb.    Its interesting that they found it among early 1980s built flats that are there now.   I blogged about this quite a while back when I was still in Jerusalem.

Why?  I used to live in Olei Ha Gardon in Talpiyot for 3 years, the very place this tomb was found.    You can’t see where this tomb actually is, as the entrance is blocked and they got pictures of it using a robot sent into a small hole.

Ok, where today there is a big problem with super-sessionism (replacement theology or saying Israel and the Jews have no relevance today) and antisemitism, the regular type and the less obvious types, I’m going to talk more about the Hebrew Roots movement, I think there is a lot of dangerously destructive ideas in this which are leading believers astray.

Tabor lists on his Facebook page as being a Professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte, he lists his friends as not evangelicals, ordinary Jews, or Israeli Messianic Jews but ex-Messianic groups who aim to destroy the gospel such as Jono ‘Truth2U’ Vandor and Jason Spiritualbabies, these are heretical revisionist groups aiming to convert Christians to Orthodox/Chabad Judaism.

Tabor seems well educated, but its crucially important for Christians to stick to sources of history only from credible sources.

2 Corinthians 11 : 1

I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! 2I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

12And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. 13For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Please also check my other writings on The tomb of Jesus and also Easter at the Garden Tomb 2012