One of the key participants in the Talpiot Tomb conference was Eric Meyers, Bernice and Morton Lerner Professor of Judaic Studies at Duke University, and former President of the American Schools of Oriental Research, who made this statement for this blog:

Prof. Eric Meyers

“Here is what I can say:

I was shocked that the near universal scholarly consensus that the Talpiot tomb could not be the Tomb of Jesus was ignored by the press. In a surprise move, Simcha Jacobovici addressed the group at the closing session and made special mention of the speech of Joseph Gat’s widow about his fearing to tell the world about his discovery in 1980. The problem with this is that several Israelis noted that Gat could not have known the meaning of the inscriptions since he did not read epigraphy, let alone appreciate their potential significance had he been able to decipher them.”