The Jesus Tomb - Another Hollywood Hoax

It never ceases to amaze me that every February - March the Church can expect to see some sophomoric hijinks played out in the media for the purpose of impugning the historic claims of Christianity. The latest installment of this annual charade comes in the form of the so-called Jesus Tomb that aired on the Discovery Channel. Let me see say from the outset that this is nothing more than tabloid sensationalism, dressed in the garb of scholarship. The tragedy to all this is, many will uncritically accept these Paparazzi driven notions even within the Church of Jesus Christ. Why do we reject the claims of authors Simca Jacabovichi and Charles Pellegrino?

1. The ossuaries were discovered in the early 80’s. The real archaeologists (which means experts in the field) have dismissed them from the outset as having no relevance to the New Testament narrative.

2. The names Mary, Joseph, and Jesus (Yshua) were as common in the first century Palestine as Tom, Dick and Sally are today in North America. In fact it was estimated that over 40% of women were named Mary during Jesus time.

3. There have been several other ossuaries discovered that also bear the name of Jesus and Joseph with no direct connection to the biblical story.

4. The so-called DNA evidence only purports that the occupants of the tomb are not related matrinally. This means absolutely nothing.

5. The tomb was discovered in Jerusalem. Joseph was from Nazareth. If in fact Joseph had a family tomb, it would have been in Nazareth, the ancestral home of his family. Jesus, in direct descent from Joseph would have been buried there and not in Jerusalem.

6. The type of ossuary discovered would have been financially out of reach for the family of Jesus. Given their economic demographics, they simply would not have been able to afford the extravagance of such an interment.

7. If in fact, Jesus had a physical resurrection and a spiritual ascenscion, as the authors claim, the early Church would have buried Jesus a second time at a later date. This amounts to the greatest fraud and cover up in the history of humanity. The universal witness from the ancient world from both Christian and pagan sources is that Jesus died and rose again.

8. The apostles died for their confidence in the Resurrection. No sane person would intentionally give up their life knowing that what he believed was a fraud. No one dies for a lie.

9. The fact that James Cameron, the producer of the block buster and historically specious Titanic, tells me that this latest scam is about money, book deals and publicity. It has nothing to do with any semblance of scholarship.