In my view, it is futile to pursue both a lost blood-line traceable to a non-existent child of Jesus and the lost chalice used by Jesus at the Last Supper.  The quest to legitimate the Shroud of Turin is still alive, though I'm now skeptical because of the lastest carbon dating.   If the shroud is genuine, it is surely the lost cloth portrait of Jesus traceable to a hiding place in the walls at Edessa in eastern Syria.  I say this because the apostle Thomas was reputably buried at Edessa, a city that he evangelized.  If the shroud is genuine, then Thomas probably brought it with him from Jerusalem to Edessa.  In this thread, I simply want to fire readers' imagination with dreams of what future archaeology might yet yield in stunning discoveries relating to Jesus.  I will confine myself to 3 tantalyzing examples.

(1) Justin Martyr was a 2nd century church apologist in Rome who grew up in Samaria, south of Galilee.  He reports an encounter during his non-Christian phase with someone possessing a plough manufactured by the carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus spent most of his earthly life as a carpenter.  It seems obvious that, as his fame increased, his former customers would proudly display products crafted by him.  Imagine the value of a plough dated to the early first century with the inscription 'Jesus of Nazareth" or its equivalent.  Also, some psychics gain clairvoyant readings by handling treasured objects of the missing or deceased.  It would be interestng to see what insights might be revealed through a psychic's handling of a plough made by Jesus.  

(2) As the Roman legions closed in on Jerusalem in the 60s AD, the Jerusalem church received a prophetic oracle to flee north to Pella for sanctuary.   Pella is a city 15 miles south of the Sea of Galilee and just 2 miles east of the Jordan River.  After the murder of Jesus' brother James in 62 AD, the Jerusalem church was led for several decades by Jesus' cousin, Simon the son of Clopas.  Clopas was Joseph's brother and his wife was one of the women at Jesus' cross.  

Not long ago, a first-century Jewish coffin was discovered under a 5th century cathedral at Pella. By the 5th century, the church at Pella was overwhelmingly Gentile.  Jewish Christianity had fallen in disrepute because of its insistence that Gentile Christians be Torah-observant and because of their rejection of Paul's theology.   The Pellan decision to build a cathedral over a first-century Jewish coffin implies that the deceased was a revered Jewish leader of their founding first- century Christian community.  The best candidate for this leader is Jesus' cousin Simon son of Clopas.  The value of this coffin contrasts with the recently discredited inscription of an ossuary falsely alleged to have contained the remains of Jesus' brother James.

(3) It seems certain that Jesus had no children and and that Mary Magdalene were not married.  More interesting is the unknown fate of Jesus' family descendents.  The Jerusalem church was governed by members of Jesus' family until the end of the first century.  After the flight of this church to Pella, we lose track of them.  But as late as 400 AD, we encounter Conon, who can still claim to be a descendent of Jesus' family.  

Early Jewish Christianity was very controversial for several reasons.  They were caught in a crossfire:  they were persecuted by local synagogues for their acceptance of Jesus as Messiah and rejected by the emerging Catholic church for various theological reasons.  Some Jewish Christians rejected the virgin birth and divinity of Christ, and contented themselves with acclaiming Jesus as the Messiah.  In one of their early surviving writings (The Ascents of James), they attack Paul as "the enemy" for his pre-Christian atrocities.  They never forgave him for bullying Jesus' brother James and the earliest church prior to his conversion.  For example, they tell the story of how Paul once interrupted a teaching session by Jesus' brother James at the Jerusalem Temple and flung James down the Temple's steps.  Also, they were furious over Paul's concession that Gentile Christians did not need circumcision and scrupulous observance of the Jewish law.  As a result, Jewish Christianity vittually disappeared soon after the 4th ceniury.

2 tragic aspects of the demise of ancient Jewish Christianity tend to get overlooked.   They had their own non-canonical Gsspels, of which we now have only several  fragments.   These Gospels stem from the early 2nd century and would be far more historically valuable than any of the surviving Gnostic Gospels.   They may preserve traditions passed on by descendents of Jesus' family.  For example, he famous story of the woman taken in adultery in John 7:52-8:11 is a later insertion in the Fourth Gospel from a lost Jewish Christian Gospel, the Gospel of the Hebrews.   Though not an original part of the John's Gospel, this story seems to be a true story of how Jesus' saves this adulteress from certain stoning.   It would be a priceless treasure if we could discover an intact copy of one of these lost Jewish Christian Gospels.  Also, future achaelogy may discover a document providing information on the fate of Jesus' family dynasty.  

Don

Those possibilities are fascinating, Berserk!  Thanks so much for sharing them. Factual but open-ended---I love it!
Is Pella that fantastic city carved into rock cliffs?
Since their possibilities are now open to these readers who are so active with their image-inations, I would not be surprised that some discoveries of your 'grails' will be made in the foreseeable future, because that's the way I see things working on C1. (I say "I would not be surprised"; I'm not saying that's truely accepted, just a personal belief.)
Which brings up another question for you, sir, perhaps one you've already addressed in your teaching and could share on these boards:
What are the examples the Bible records of using spiritual gifts (other than Jesus', with which many are already familiar)? Dream interpretation, of course---when? Healing ? Prophecy? etc.