Judeo-Christian Origins
HistoryTec is open to working on any worthwhile project in the general area of Judeo-Christian Origins.
However, to date, the work in this area has been centered on the so-called "Talpiot Tomb" or questions
that derive from the study of this tomb. In short, it has been hypothesized that this tomb from the East
Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem may have been the burial location of the biblical Jesus after his body
was removed from a temporary tomb near his crucifixion site.
Examples of work in this area include:
- Statistical modeling of the "commoness" of the names found in the Talpiot Tomb
- Image Analysis of several photos relating to the Talpiot Tomb
- DNA analysis of bone samples related to the Talpiot Tomb
- Administer a Facebook group used from discussion of the Talpiot Tomb (See Facebook group
"Talpiot Tomb")
Please note that the education site and the Facebook group listed above are credited to the Friends of
the Talpiot Tomb (FOTT). Those individuals who have signed up for the Talpiot Tomb Facebook group
are known as the Friends of the Talptio Tomb.
Please contact us if you would like to discuss a potential project with us.
Sample Reports
Did the set of names from the Talpiot tomb arise by chance? March 8, 2010
The Talpiot Tomb: What are the Odds? August 31, 2009
The James Ossuary in Talpiot : More about Probability? April 6, 2015
What do we mean by Judeo-Christian Origins?
Wikipedia states that "the term 'Judeo-Christian' groups Judaism and Christianity, either in reference to
their common origin in Late Antiquity or due to perceived parallels or commonalities shared between the
two traditions". This is a somewhat useful definition for our purposes.
However, we want to be clear that for our purposes when we use the term "Judeo-Christian Origins we
are referring to the very earliest periods when the term Judeo-Christian might apply. That is, we are
focused on the period beginning with the life of the biblical Jesus through the time when the canonical
and some major non-canonical gospels were written
It is the editorial position of HistoryTec that religious or theological explanations will not be used to
explain historical events. This is difficult to do in practice. It is possible that some readers will detect an
unintended religious bias in our work.
One example could be in the use of the phrase "biblical Jesus". This phrase is used frequently in our
work simply to convey to readers that we are talking about the most prominent Jesus of the bible, not
some other Jesus. This could be a problem for some readers who see this reference as a tacit
agreement with how Jesus is characterized in the New Testament, which they feel gives us a limited and
obscured picture of the historical Jesus.
So to be clear, HistoryTec makes the following assumptions about the "biblical Jesus":
- There was a real first century CE Torah observant Galilean named Yeshua (aka Jesus) who is
portrayed as the centerpiece of the New Testament.
- There is value in trying to understand the true historical life of this Yeshua.
- The New Testament is primarily a theological document that offers us a useful but limited and
obscured historical view of the life of this Yeshua.
- The Jewish burial tomb at East Talpiot which contains the remains of "Yeshua bar Yehosef" may
provide us with valuable historical information about this biblical Yeshua.