AN EMINENT church scholar yesterday dismissed the finding of tomb relics bearing the names of Jesus, Mary and Joseph as no more than "an interesting coincidence". Dr Tom Wright, the Dean of Lichfield, spoke out after experts said they might have uncovered the tomb in which Christ and his family were laid to rest.
Nine caskets for bones, known as ossuaries, have been discovered, six of them marked with significant biblical names including those of the Holy Family. But Dr Wright said it was "laughable" that anyone could have tended the body of Jesus without it becoming public knowledge.
He said early Christians had been adamant that Christ's body was resurrected, and this was the reason the religion had survived.
Dr Wright, a former Oxford don and a member of the Church of England Doctrine Committee, added: "I have read pretty well everything that has been written and can see no other explanation other than the body was resurrected."
The caskets bearing the names were discovered in an Israeli museum warehouse - owned by the Israel Antiquities Authority - by the makers of the BBC's Heart of the Matter programme. The caskets bear the names Jesus, son of Joseph, Mary, Joseph, Yehuda, son of Jesus, Matthew and Mary. They had all been found in the same tomb but contained no bones because of vandalism.
An edition of the programme called The Body in Question, will be screened on Easter Sunday and discusses the impact on Christianity if the bones of Christ were ever discovered.
Ten ossuaries marked with the name of Jesus have been found in and around Jerusalem.
Mr Amos Kloner of the Israel Antiquities Authority said: "I would not say that it deserves a special interest other than the chance of the appearance of the names ... I can't say a possibility that it is the tomb of the Holy Family does not exist at all, but I think such a possibility is very close to zero."
But the curator of the Rockefeller Museum, Mr Joe Zias, said: "Had this not been found in a tomb, I would have said, 100 per cent, that what we're looking at are simple forgeries. I find it very interesting that we have the combination of names. This thing definitely, I think, is worth some further research."