As usual, Dr. Bock, you do good work and research. I have read 2 of your books. Yet I am curious if you know the answer as to why Elaine Pagels and Bart Erhman(?) who do much of the same work as you, folded on their faith? Did they find something that shook them or was it never there?

Concerning the newly hyped lost ossuary of Jesus, why would the Jews/Romans/Gnostics or anyone other than Christians bother to bury Jesus and family when they would have been much better off to have exposed the body and thus killed Christianity with it's resurection claims? Secondly, as you briefly pointed out, why would the Christians hide the bones, and then worship and die for what they knew to be a hoax? Most especially, why would they even inscribe the names on the ossuary if their intent was to hide any evidence? Notably, the DNA that was done rules out "Mary and Martha" as related to Jesus. So what could that possibly prove? We already knew that. It also rules out my wife Martha as well.....and her friend Maria. Why don't they do and announce the DNA on the other Mary as compared to Jesus....and then Mary's mitochondria as compared to Yose....and then Joseph's Y chromosome to Yose? Then they could at least conclude that they indeed had a family. I would like to know the dating of the ossuaries as well.....and how do they know that some second century Gnostic graffitti artist didn't come along and inscribe the names on some unknown Jewish family just to cause some trouble? Besides, in my little town of 20,000, I can show you where the graves of a James Brown and Grace Kelly are. I can even show you where a man and woman named Toy and Candy are buried....have we found the Ghost of Christmas past? In Mexico, I'm sure I can show you where many Jose and Marias are buried with several Jesus's nearby. I noticed how Simcha Jacobovici continued saying that he wasn't qualified as this and that but yet he never missed a beat in trying to defend the rediculi. Not once did he attempt the same or agree with the Christian point of view. If they are then trying to disprove something about Christianity, then I hope they have more than this. Yet, why do these cowards always pick on Christianity but never Islam? (I know the answer). You have to give Salmon Rushdie credit. In the future, I will have to categorize Cameron and the Discovery Channel in with Scorcesse, Maplethorpe, etc. I also notice how they never put any qualified apologists like yourself against these claims, but rather put up those sympathetic to the heresies as if they are attacking them.
Lastly, I would like to ask you if you think that Hindu-Buddhist teaching supllied the Gnostic writings and teachings of the early centuries? I know Pythagoras believed in Hindu reicarnation (he was before Buddhism). I know Hipolytus said they were in Egypt in the 4th century. I read where the name Buddha could be substituted in place of Jesus name in the "Gospel of Thomas" and the doctrine would make more sense. But it occured to me that when Jesus said that he would make Mary into a man....that is the next step for women in the samsara 'wheel' of reincarnation! hinduism would explain the whole Gnostic scene? God bless you and keep up the good work.