I’m not sure why you say it doesn’t make the DNA evidence fall apart, because obviously now we don’t even know whose bones were DNA tested: Mary’s or Martha’s? Or both?

On not being too hard on Simcha and others: I see your point, but in my view the lesson is, when you rest such a huge point on something as they obviously did with regard to the alleged “Mary Magdalene” inscription, you better not rely on somebody else’s work unquestioningly but check it out for yourself or have true experts do it. All they had to do is have somebody like Pfann look at the inscription in the first place before going ahead with their huge sensationalist theory. But they didn’t. Even now, they are denying his findings, when they are plain for (almost) everyone to see. On a related note, I’m not even sure they were aware that Mara is a short form of Martha, which also strikes me as surprisingly ignorant.

I too am convinced by Dr. Pfann’s presentation. The Mu’s are clearly different — the “M” in “Mara” resembles what paleographers used to call a “Coptic Mu,” unlike the straight-line Mu’s in “Mariame.”

This does not make the DNA evidence fall apart. But the DNA evidence meant little in the first place.

You mentioned that Pfann’s correction “casts serious doubt on the competence of the makers of the “Jesus tomb special” and their advisers.”

I wouldn’t be too hard on their advisors regarding this particular point, because Tabor and Jacobovici were just following the reading in the definitive guide to ossuary-inscriptions, Rahmani’s catalogue. Rahmani was certainly not incompetent. He just got this particular reading wrong, probably because not only is the inscription in sloppily-written Greek but because the second part of the inscription is written in semi-cursive Greek.

AK: “Rather than exercise care in reading the ossuary inscription in question, they jumped to conclusions and read the inscription the wrong way.”

No no no; Rahmani read the inscription incorrectly and they accepted Rahmani’s reading. Everyone else did, too (more or less), until Dr. Pfann came along.

Pulpit Magazine’s Resources on The Lost Tomb of Jesus
Don’t Lose Any Sleep Over Jesus’ Lost Tomb – Pulpit Magazine
Eight Reasons Why I Believe That Jesus Rose from the Dead, by John Piper
What Bones of Jesus? at Media Research Center
The Jes…