Why can't Christians Verify Exactly Where Jesus Was Buried?

[Aractus]

Hi Aractus,
Thanks for your comprehensive reply. I know that Jesus's supposed friends and family didn't write the Bible, I was saying that despite all the commotion and supernatural events surrounding the tomb, everyone forgot where he was first buried.  This is very strange, if he was as popular as stated in the Bible and the tomb was already known from its wealthy owner.

It isn't at all strange. We didn't know where Ned Kelly's grave was for more than a century (we only found it five years ago), and he was very much a real person with legendary status attached to his escapades. And we would never have identified his remains without the use of DNA testing. That isn't available for Jesus since we don't know of any living relatives from his family's blood line (and even if we did after 2,000 years it'd probably be next to useless anyway).

As for Joseph of Arimathea's tomb, that was not Jesus's final resting place (nor was it ever intended to be). He was probably there for just the 2-3 days before his supposed resurrection, so why should anyone remember where it was? Can you remember other wealthy people's tombs from the first century?

I don't know whether James was supposed to be a biological brother of Jesus or just a follower.

Well if you can't at name Jesus's brothers (James, Joseph, Simeon, Judas) and not even his best known one (James the Just) then there's not much hope for you...

How do you know that Paul knew Jesus' family?

Because he says so, specifically in Galatians 1:19.

To make it even worse, no-one remembers Jesus' birthplace, whether it was a house or a manger,  the actual house where he grew up as a lad and the whereabouts of his crucifixion.

Why don't you start by figuring out my birthplace? Do you remember? The followers of Jesus can't possibly be expected to "remember" things that they were not a part of. We don't really know anything reliable about the birthplace of Jesus for that very fact that the only things we have are two (conflicting) accounts in Matthew and Luke.  He might have been born in Nazareth, he might have been born in Bethlehem, hell he could have been born in India for all we know and migrated to Nazareth as a child.

Now let's put this in context for you. You know (because I just told you) that Jesus had at least 4 brothers. Maths alone would tell you he probably had as many sisters as well, and may even have had more siblings still. So let's say he was one of 9 children - do you really expect his mother, Mary, to remember where each one of her children were born? That's the kind of thing that could easily be misremembered with so many children anyway.