Jeff:

I have no problem with public vetting. That is what this blog has been about here. We just did not need multiple posts with the same information and questions. I also think many of the good questions you have riased have been adequately addressed and from credible sources.

Let me illustrate, some of what I have posted you call wild is actually coming, not from Christians, but from Israeli experts who are making the points in question and whose living has been studying these tombs. For example, the distiant relative suggestion you call "wild" comes from Amos Kloner, who works with the Israeli Antiquities Authority (he says it on the audio interview we posted). He notes the tomb is likely to have had 35 bodies in it and that not only relatives, but highly regarded slaves could also have ended up in such a tomb. Kloner knows as much about Jewish ossuaries and tombs as anyone. He is currently working on a book being translated from Hebrew on the topic of Tombs in the Jerusalem area for the international publisher Brill out of Belgium. So this is not wild speculation, but the remarks of someone who has studied this area as his life's vocation.

What we have in Judas Son of Jesus is evidence of a Judah who has a Jesus as a father when there is no existing, clear evidence that Jesus of Nazareth was married and had a child (This is an issue I addressed in detail during the DaVinci Code furor-- and as I pointed out then, it is near unanimous position held by scholars of a variety of persuations, not just conservative Christians). Today how many Richard's might have a son named Henry? That is all we have here, not that we know which specific Richard we are discussing.

These ossuaries cover only 100 years, not 1000 (unless that was a typo).

The plain nature of Jesus' ossuary is another problem. Ossuaries varied in simplicity and adornment -- and gender is not a clue. But to have such a simple script and lack of adornment on a tomb for an honored figure is less than likely as well as your question suggests.

Hope this helps.

dlb