The "Jesus Family Tomb” story: Old News, No News

http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2007/02/whos_writing_th.html ^

[truthfinder9]

Every Easter season the anti-Jesus crowd comes out of the woodwork creating some "controversy" about Jesus. This latest one, like many, is years old and was dusted off for the latest round of baseless attacks on Jesus' historicity.

Historian Paul L. Maier explains further:

Thanks for the profusion of e-mails I’ve received over the last two days regarding the Talpiot tombs discovery in Jerusalem, a.k.a., “the Jesus Family Tomb” story. Some of you also suggested that “life seemed to be following art” so far as my A Skeleton in God’s Closet was concerned. Believe me, this is not the way I wanted my novel to hit the visual media!

Alas, this whole affair is just the latest in the long-running media attack on the historical Jesus, which – we thought – had culminated in that book of lies, The Da Vinci Code. But no: the caricatures of Christ continue.

Please, lose no sleep over the Talpiot “discoveries” for the following reasons, and here are the facts:

1) Nothing is new here: scholars have known about the ossuaries ever since March of 1980. The general public learned when the BBC filmed a documentary on them in 1996. James Tabor’s book, The Jesus Dynasty, also made a big fuss over the Talpiot tombs more recently, and now James Cameron (The Titanic) and Simcha Jacobovici have climbed aboard the sensationalist bandwagon as well.

2) All the names – Yeshua, Joseph, Maria, Mariamene, Matia, Judah, and Jose -- are extremely frequent Jewish names for that time and place, and thus most schol-ars consider this merely coincidental, as they did from the start. One-quarter of Jewish women at that time, for example, were named Maria.

3) There is no reason whatever to equate “Mary Magdalene” with “Mariamene” as Jacobovici claims.

4) So what if her DNA is different from that of “Yeshua” ? That particular name, Mariamme” (as it is usually spelled today) could indeed have been the wife of that particular “Yeshua.”

5) What in the world is the “Jesus Family” doing, having a burial plot in Jerusalem, of all places, the very city that crucified Jesus? Galilee was their home. In Galilee they could have had such a family plot, not Judea. Besides all of which, church tradition – and Eusebius – are unanimous in reporting that Mary died in Ephesus, where the apostle John, faithful to his commission from Jesus on the cross, had accompanied Mary.

6) If this were Jesus’ family burial, what is Matthew doing there – if indeed “Ma-tia” is thus to be translated?

7) How come there is no tradition whatever – Christian, Jewish, or secular -- that any part of the Holy Family was buried at Jerusalem?

8) Please note the extreme bias of the director and narrator, Simcha Jacobovici. The man is an Indiana-Jones-wannabe, who oversensationalizes anything he touches. You may have caught him on his TV special regarding The Exodus, in which the man “explained” just everything that still needed proving or explaining in the Exodus account in the Old Testament! It finally became ludicrous, and now he’s doing it again. – As for James Cameron, how do you follow The Titanic? Well, with an even more “titanic” story. He should have known better.

There are more arguments, to be sure, but I want to get this off pronto.

***

See also:

James Tabor’s blog http://jesusdynasty.com/blog/category/tabor-blog/

Ben Witherington III blog critiquing the claim http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2007/02/jesus-tomb-titanic-talpiot-tomb-theory.html

Darrell L. Bock’s critique http://dev.bible.org/bock/node/106

Scot McKnight (North Park University) blog http://www.jesuscreed.org/

Mark Goodacre (Duke University) blog on the controversy http://ntgateway.com/weblog/2007/02/jesus-family-tomb-how-blogging-helps.html

Greg Koukl blog with letter from Paul L. Maier critiquing the claim http://str.typepad.com/weblog/2007/02/whos_writing_th.html

James White blog with preliminary criticisms http://www.aomin.org/index.php?itemid=1790

Michael Spencer “The Internet Monk” roundup of resources on the controversy http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/a-messiah-buried-with-honor-responses-to-the-tomb-of-jesus-and-his-family-story

Jerusalem Post article interviewing Amos Kloner (Bar-Ilan University), “the Jerusalem District archeologist who officially oversaw the work at the tomb in 1980”; Kloner dismisses the claim as “impossible” and “nonsense” http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1171894508893&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

AP article quotes Stephen Pfann, a Jerusalem-based scholar interviewed in the documentary; Pfann says the name interpreted to be “Jesus” on one of the caskets is more likely “Hunan” http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/26/jesus.sburial.ap/index.html

Newsweek article, somewhat skepticism of the claims; includes video clips from the documentary http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17328478/site/newsweek/

[bigcat32]

"This latest one, like many, is years old and was dusted off for the latest round of baseless attacks on Jesus' historicity."

I view the life, death and rise of Jesus as more historical fact than "religion". Does anyone out there feel the same?

[mtbopfuyn]

The Da Vince code is, was, and always will be FICTION.

[betsyross1776]

Let us put all involved in this garbage,on unemployment.Let us do to them what they wanted to do to our religion. this will not hurt us .This will only make us stronger.The stronger we get in Christ the more they will fall along the wayside. Nobody watches the discovery channel except the nut cases who are looking for aliens anyway. they will do this , but we will fight back.

[heather_p]

I don't think anyone is trying to argue against Christianity. If you found an artifact that was this significant (or could possibly be this important) wouldn't you do something about it? It's just the nature of our society to turn to media to communicate a message. A documentary is a great way to do it so that others can judge for themselves. I don't believe there are any anti-Christian motives here. Look for yourself:
www.jesusfamilytomb.com

[massgopguy]

So, Mr. Cameron would have us believe that Jesus and his family lived openly in the city where the Romans ruled? Jesus shows his face to anyone other than the Apostles and it's back up on the Cross for him.

[Abigail Adams]

The "find" can't be significant, because it can't be authentic. You can't change history, because it happened. Jesus rose from the dead. End of story.

[betsyross1776]

You know one thing I know Cameron is a fool. The bigger fools are the fools who follow him. I would not waste my time and my fingers going to any website that tries to attack the only man who really stood for love and peace. If you want to read that garbage fine, don't even try to ask me to go to any website that insults Jesus the Christ. there might be a tomb of Jesus there, but one thing I know it not the Jesus of the Bible. Sorry , but he was too busy going about His Fathers work to raise a family and His Fathers work was to see us we were all saved from Satin. Looks like there are some fools in the world that cannot see that. Maybe you are one of them, if you believe this and a novel I feel sorry for you. You need it.

[betsyross1776]

You picked the wrong lady to defend this nonsense to . i saw too much of this garbage to. This garbage belongs with the Di vinci code a fiction novel, get it fiction, in my burner burning to hell , where I think Cameron should go. Don't go there either, I said I am a sinner Would punch that guy in the face in a minute.I want this guy to live a long happy life of me making him miserable on this internet.

[betsyross1776]

You picked the wrong lady to defend this nonsense to . I saw too much of this garbage to. This garbarge belongs with the Di vinci code a fiction novel, get it fiction, in my burner burning to hell , where I think Cameron should go. Don't go there either, I said I am a sinner Would punch that guy in the face in a minute.I want this guy to live a long happy life of me making him miserable on this internet.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks go to GoLightly and xcamel for compiling the list (thus far) of such topics, and to whomever started the handy keyword:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jesustomb

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789769/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1789966/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790456/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790579/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790608/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790818/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790884/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790953/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791244/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1791251/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791284/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791352/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791365/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791383/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791513/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791544/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791583/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791588/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791610/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791891/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1792121/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1792190/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1792305/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1792583/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1793097/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

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[SunkenCiv]

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