The Jesus Family Tomb - Book by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino

Contact: Claudia Riemer Boutote (415) 477-4404 claudia.boutote@harpercollins.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  -THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB-  New book offers a riveting account of the astounding discovery and investigation of what may be the greatest archaeological find in modern history and what it means for the world today

New York, NY (rushprnews) 02/27/2007—HarperSanFrancisco today announces today the publication of THE JESUS  FAMILY TOMB by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, with a foreword by James   Cameron.

THE JESUS FMAILY TOMB ($27.95, 0-06-119202-3) tells the story of what may  be the greatest archaeological find in modern history—the discovery and investigation of a tomb that houses ossuaries (bone boxes) with inscriptions that seem to refer to Jesus, two Mary’s, and Judah, a son of Jesus.

“We love to publish books like THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB,” said Mark Tauber,
HarperSanFrancisco’s VP, Deputy Publisher, “books that are at the cutting-edge of biblical
archaeology. These books have always been an important part of our program at
HarperSanFrancisco, where our mandate is to publish the most important books across the full
spectrum of religion and spirituality. This book offers another exciting take on the life and
death of the historical Jesus.”

In THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB, Jacobovici and Pellegrino take us on a riveting “you-arethere” search into history as they investigate the story of the tomb and examine DNA
evidence—a path that leads them to scientists and scholars around the world.

The story begins in 1980 when an apartment complex was being built in Jerusalem and a tomb
was uncovered. Construction was immediately halted as archeologists from the Israeli
Antiquities Authority were called to the site. Inside the tomb, the IAA archaeologists mapped
ten ossuaries, or limestone bone boxes, that served as first century Jerusalem-area coffins. Six
of the ossuaries had inscriptions, including two Mary’s, a Matthew, a Judah, and a man by the
name of “Jesus, son of Joseph.” The team concluded that the unusual group of names was
merely coincidence. After removing and cataloging the ossuaries, they left the tomb to the
builders to finish what they started.

-more
Twenty-five years later, Simcha Jacobovici, an Emmy-award winning journalist, tracked down
the ossuaries in the IAA warehouse and decided to investigate this remarkable collection of
names. Simcha mapped and then located the original tomb, which to his surprise, was still
intact. Granted unequaled access, he soon found that the archaeologists were unaware of key
evidence that made this the discovery of a lifetime.

Could these inscriptions really be the Jesus and the Mary of the Gospels? THE JESUS
FAMILY TOMB follows the remarkable journey as Jacobovici and Pellegrino attempt to
answer this question in an investigation of the patinas and DNA of the tombs and the analysis of
statistical probabilities of the cluster of names in the specific location. A time-bending trip
across two millennia, THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB makes a compelling argument that this is,
indeed, the tomb of Jesus.

A riveting combination of history, archaeology, and theology, THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB
will change the way we think about Jesus, history, and religion.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

SIMCHA JACOBOVICI is an award-winning documentary director and producer as well as
a well published writer and lecturer. His reports have been carried internationally by
Associated Press and his articles have appeared in the International Herald Tribune as well
as in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe. Currently the
host of “The Naked Archaeologist: on the History Channel, Simcha Jacobovici has been
Simcha has been a guest speaker at numerous conferences and on numerous campuses
including, Yale, Johns Hopkins, McGill, York and UCLA. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

CHARLES PELLEGRINO is the author of numerous internationally bestselling books.
Her Name, Titanic sold over a million copies and was one of the nonfiction sources for
James Cameron’s movie “Titanic.” Several of Pellegrino’s books have been adapted for
Time Life and National Geographic specials, including “Unearthing Atlantis.” He has a
Ph.D. in pale biology and is one of the small number of scientists who brought forensic
science methods to the field of archaeology. He has contributed to many scientific journals
and popular magazines including: Science, Smithsonian, and Evolutionary Theory. As a
forensic archaeologist, he has worked on the Titanic, in Pompeii and its sister cities, and at
New York’s Ground Zero.

THE JESUS FAMILY TOMB
The Discovery, the Investigation, and the Evidence That Could Change History
Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino
February 2007; $27.95
ISBN: 006119202-3
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