Considering the information on the life of Jesus found in the New Testament, is it even a possibility that a carpenter from Nazareth and his family could even afford a family tomb in Jerusalem. Is it not more likely that a family tomb would be located in Nazareth?

That is exactly my question, Sisco13. If you look at the map of ancient Israel, Nazareth is miles from Jerusalem. Why would the Jesus family have a tomb there? Jesus was visiting Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion, not living there. Besides, well known Biblical scholars agree that Joseph died at a young age, when Jesus was a child. How does one account for his being buried in Jerusalem? I'd be interested in an expert opinion. Respectfully,

Amy, these posters have one of the rare few topics which address a critical flaw in the Cameron dog and pony show. They see the ridiculousness of Cameron's assumption. I advise these posters to go to the basilica which houses the original tomb. Then they should read the best 'eye witness' description of the tomb in its natural state before the basilica was built over it to preserve it for veneration and prevent it from being abused for crass commercialization. The account written by Catherine Emmerich the one Mel Gibson read to film his Passion movie.

The thing these posters should be aware of how easy it is for a prankster to create a hoax like this by rummaging around in innumerable tombs in Jerusalem, pluck out requisite named ossuaries with bones in them and dump them in a spiffy tomb waiting for a 'discovery' ala hollywood hype.

The problem of an expert opinion is that there isn't anybody alive more expert than anybody else. Everybody's opinion is of equal value, however, the 1st step is to narow dine the choices. Gnostics claim a tomb in every country they rumor that Christ escaped to. In France there are 3 contenders around Rennes-le-Chateau each complete with magdelene due to excess gnostic hype from the Dan Brown fiasco. A gnostic is the last person to ask an opinion from since they have been howling, ranting, raving the same old, tired, worn out, used and abused mantra for 2,000 years to prevail against the Church and have not succeeded.

Amy is the expert in this arena she knows the gnostic shtick is a losing proposition.

Is anyone aware of any reaction or comment from the Catholic Church about the plausability of the Tomb?