Reply #50: You should carefully read the "statistical case" link in the prior post: [View All]

[struggle4progress]

... the matches between the Talpiot tomb and the early Christian literary record are factored into the calculations in a positive way, but the non-matches are simply ignored ... If a case is built up on the notion that a remarkable cluster of names in a given places matches with a known cluster of names in another place, it is essential that the non-matches are taken seriously too .. when some .. non-matches .. contradict the literary record ...

There is no reliable historical tradition that Jesus was married to a woman called Mariamne ... We cannot assume unevidenced data in setting up the calculation. If the statistical calculation is to have any validity at all, we must work only with the known quantities.

The Matia ossuary is a non match .. cannot be left out of the calculations ... It needs to be given negative weight ...

There is no reliable historical information that a character called Judas son of Jesus was connected with the Jesus movement. Indeed, this .. contradicts the literary record in a striking way .. There is no record of Jesus having any children, and so the evidence here contradicts the identification of the tomb as Jesus' family tomb ...

http://ntgateway.com/weblog/2007/03/statistical-case-for-identity-of-jesus.html

Independent of how seriously one wants to take the existing literary record, the fact remains: that record is the record one actually has; it is essentially the only "historical data" available for setting up any statistical calculation, and on any scientific view it has certain weaknesses.

If, for example, one wants to use such "data" to argue that the Matia ossuary represents the Matthew of the New Testament, then one has a conflicted literary record, which includes (but is not limited to) the following account and which might suggest one does not much expect his burial in Jerusalem:

Acts and Martyrdom of St. Matthew

And Matthew .. said: Peace to you! And .. went to his rest ... And the king .. ordered an iron coffin to be made, put the body of Matthew into it, and .... threw it into the deep part of the sea. And Saint Matthew finished his course in the country of the man-eaters, in the city of Myrna ...

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0822.htm

For more regarding Mariamne, see my post infra