Back when I was initially researching ideas for this website, I came across an article titled, “Chevron foiled,” which analyzes the mysterious symbol found above the outer entrance of the Talpiot Tomb. For those not up to speed on the details surrounding this discovery, I highly recommend this post on Dr. James Tabor’s blog, which gathers a number of in-depth articles on the subject. I also briefly summarized certain aspects of it in The Jesus Theory of Everything Part 2. Since its unearthing, many attempts have been made to draw a connection between the carving on the tomb’s exterior and early Christianity. The suggestion has even been made that this symbol, deemed a chevron by some, was later employed by the Knights Templar, who must have discovered the tomb and its secrets during the Crusades of the Middle Ages.

In case you couldn’t tell, I love a good mystery, so I couldn’t help but try and see if any sense could be made of this abstract design. A famous archaeologist once said, “Seventy percent of all archaeology is done in the library.” In the internet age, it is amazing what one can dig up without even leaving their kitchen. The items below represent some of the more intriguing parallels that I was able to find. It is by no means exhaustive, and I attempted to confine my search to the ancient Roman Empire. The original sources for these images can be found by clicking on them and all content is protected under fair use.

Finally, here is the so-called Tomb of the Apostle Philip at Hierapolis, Turkey. Discovered in 2011, this first-century Roman tomb was located at the center of a fourth or fifth-century church, which was said to have at one time housed the remains of the Apostle Philip. Whether or not this claim is based in any truth, the fact remains that this was a venerated site among early Christians.

Conclusions

Further research is required in claiming a definite parallel between the Talpiot Tomb and any of the items listed above. That said, it is safe to say that the symbol on the Talpiot Tomb’s façade is no slam dunk for asserting that this is the final resting place of the Holy Family. At the same time, it does not rule out the possibility either. On the contrary, it provides supporting evidence for the hypothesis explored on this website–namely, that the New Testament’s Jesus Christ is one and the same as The Dead Sea Scrolls’ Wicked Priest and Josephus’s Judas the Galilean. All things considered, we might venture to offer three tentative conclusions at this time:

1) The “wreath and gable” was primarily a Roman motif, sometimes associated with solar mythology. The “gable” imagery seems to stem from the architecture of Hellenistic temple pediments. The solar mythology, while by no means exclusive to the practice of emperor worship, was an important part of that religion. As past scholars have demonstrated exhaustively, solar symbolism was also a vital part of early Christianity, as can be seen, for example in early artistic portrayals of Christ as Helios and Apollo.

2) This imagery was later adopted into the religious customs of Hellenized Jews and Christians. We find versions of the “wreath and gable” symbolism on some Jewish ossuaries and later synagogues, but whether these had any relation to primitive Christianity remains an open question. We find definite usage of the same motif on early Christian basilicas and even outside the tomb where one of Jesus’s apostles, St. Philip, was believed to have been interred.

3) The Talpiot Tomb housed a person or family of some accomplishment and/or renown. This can be gathered from both the fact that the family had the means of affording such a burial place in the Jerusalem area and also by the employment of the wreath and gable motif on its exterior. As Stephen Pfann, a Talpiot skeptic, writes:

The wreath ornament placed above the door of a house or a tomb normally indicated that a patriarch or family member of some accomplished status or renown was resided within. The laurel or olive wreath was awarded to accomplished men of letters, statesmen, military heroes, and champion athletes. The first two occupations seem a more likely match for this tomb since rulers, scribes, and priests figured prominently in various tomb inscriptions in the necropolis naturally connected to the Jerusalem scene.

Pfann 2013, 58

According to Pfann, the wreath and gable motif would have been appropriate for a priest. It just so happens that, following in the footsteps of Barbara Thiering, I contend that Jesus was known as “The Wicked Priest” at Qumran. Furthermore, his step-father, Joseph son of Heli according to Luke, has a name suspiciously similar to that of Joseph son of Ellemus, a contemporaneous temple priest of whom Josephus makes mention (A.J. 17:6:4). The suggestion of Jesus being raised in a priestly family would explain two key details in the gospel accounts: 1) That Joseph was known as a carpenter, since at this time, Herod had temple priests trained as carpenters to renovate the Jerusalem Temple without defiling its sacred space (A.J. 15:11:2). 2) That Jesus would be so learned in the scriptures. This is just not realistic for a Galilean peasant. Rather, the trope of a modest upbringing likely stems from the evangelists in their efforts to further romanticize the story of Jesus. 

So has the Talpiot “chevron” been foiled? The answer depends on what one wishes to take away from it. It may not be a uniquely Christian glyph, but whether we call it a chevron, a wreath, or the decapitated head of Medusa herself, this esoteric carving tells its own part of the Talpiot story. And in doing so, the dry bones it guarded for two thousand years live once again.

References

Metcalf, William. 2012. The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

Pfann, Stephen. 2013. “Demythologizing the Talpiot Tomb: The Tomb of Another Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.” In The Tomb of Jesus and His Family? Exploring Ancient Jewish Tombs Near Jerusalem’s Walls: The Fourth Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins, edited by James H. Charlesworth, 165-205. Grand Rapids/Cambridge: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. http://www.uhl.ac/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/TalpiotTombAnalysisSJP3a.pdf.