Stephen Pfann Rules Out Mary Magdalene Ossuary

Dr. Stephen Pfann of Jerusalem University who does a lot of close work on epigraphy and other related fields has now weighed in on the so-called Mary Magdalene ossuary (Rahmani no. 701). His detailed analysis of the inscription with careful comparison to other ossuary inscriptions and textual evidence shows the high likelihood that there were two women in that ossuary, and neither one of them could be Mary Magdalene. Here below is the initial summary of his report, and his conclusions. I thank my friend Richard Bauckham for kindly sending me the pdf link. Pfann is a fine and careful scholar who is respected by the original archaeologists, Amos Kloner and Joe Zias who were originally involved with the tomb. For those wanting to read more, there is bibliography at the end of the conclusions.

MARY MAGDALENE IS NOW MISSING:

A CORRECTED READING OF RAHMANI OSSUARY 701

By Stephen J. Pfann, Ph.D.

SUMMARY POINTS OF DISCUSSION:

*The original transcription of the inscription was incorrect.

*The inscription does not read “Mariamene the Master”nor does the name Mariamene

or Mariamne appear on the ossuary at all.

*The inscription reflects the writing of two distinct scribes who wrote in different forms of

the Greek script.

*The correct reading of the inscription is “Mariame and Mara,” based on parallels from

contemporary inscriptions and documents.

*The ossuary thus contained the bones of at least two different women, interred at two

separate times, one named Mariame and the other Mara.

*No support exists for ascribing the ossuary to Mary Magdalene.

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The revised reading of the inscription based on contemporary inscriptions and documents

would leave the words MARIAME KAI MARA "Mariam and Mara." Mara, as noted by Tal

Ilan among other scholars, was a common shortened form of the Aramaic name “Martha.”

Due to the fact that (1) an ossuary would often contain more than one individual's bones and

(2) these two names are among the most common personal names of the first century, the

combination of these two names together on an ossuary is not unique.

In fact an ossuary was discovered at Dominus Flevit on the west slope of the Mt. of Olives

that has the Hebrew equivalent of the two names as a pair written three times on the same

ossuary (however, with the order reversed: "Martha and Maria"; Dominus Flevit, ossuary 7):

Multiple burial and DNA

The fact that two individuals were named on the side of an ossuary does not limit the remains

inside to be of those two individuals. There may have been others inside whose names were

not inscribed. To give us an idea as to how many individuals might have been inside a single

ossuary, there was one ossuary, also from the Dominus Flevit tomb complex (Dominus

Flevit, Ossuary 37), which bears the names of five individuals, indicating that the ossuary

contained at least five distinct burials. The named individuals buried in the ossuary were

Zacharias, Mariame, El'azar, Simon, and Sheniit(?).The variety of scripts and character of the

cuts indicate that the inscriptions were written by different individuals with distinct

instruments. There may be the skeletal and DNA remains of at least five individuals in this

box (not accounting for others who went unnamed).

CONCLUSION

The so-called "Mariamene" ossuary contained the names and remains of two distinct

individuals. The first name on the ossuary, “MARIAME.” was written in the common Greek

documentary script of the period on the occasion of the interment of the bones of this woman.

The second and third words “KAI MARA” were added sometime later by a second scribe,

when the bones of the second woman Mara were added to the ossuary. This scribe's

handwriting includes numerous cursive elements not exhibited by the first scribe who wrote

“Mariame.” In view of the above, there is no longer any reason to be tempted to link this

ossuary (nor the ambiguous traces of DNA inside) to Mary Magdalene or any other person in

Biblical, non-Biblical or church tradition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bagatti, P.B. and Milik, J.T. Gli Scavi del “Dominus Flevit”, Parte 1. Jerusalem. Franciscan

Printing Press. 1981.

Benoit, P., Milik, J.T., and de Vaux, R. Les Grottes de Murabba’at. Discoveries in the

Judaean Desert II. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1961.

Cotton, H.M. and Geiger, J. Masada II: The Latin and Greek Documents. Jerusalem. Israel

Exploration Society/The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 1989.

Cotton, H.M. and Yardmen, A. Aramaic Hebrew and Greek Documentary Texts from Nasal

Hover and Other Sites. Discoveries in the Judaean Desert XXVII. Oxford. Clarendon

Press. 1997.

Ilan, T. Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity: Part 1: Palestine 330 BCE-200 CE.

Tübingen. Mohr Siebeck. 2002.

Lewis, N., Yadin, Y., and Greenfield, J.C. The Documents from the Bar Kokhba Period in the

Caves of the Letters: Greek Papyri; Aramaic and Nabatean Signatures and

Subscriptions. Jerusalem. Israel Exploration Society/The Hebrew University of

Jerusalem/The Shrine of the Book. 1989.

Rahmani, L.Y. A Catalogue of Jewish Ossuaries in the Collections of the State of Israel.

Jerusalem. The Israel Antiquities Authority/The Israel Academy of Sciences and

Humanities. 1994.