Free Republic

Iran’s Basij Press is claiming a purported Gospel of Barnabas, discovered in 2000, will prove that Islam is the final and righteous religion, causing the collapse worldwide of Christianity. In the Barnabas text held by Turkey, chapter 41 states: “God has hidden himself as Archangel Michael ran them (Adam and Eve) out of heaven, (and) when Adam turned, he noticed that at top of the gateway to heaven, it was written ‘La elah ela Allah, Mohamad rasool Allah,’” meaning Allah is the only God and Muhammad his prophet. According to the Barnabas Gospel in Turkey’s hands, Jesus was never crucified,...

<p>KORMAKITI, Cyprus - If the people of this remote village were to travel back to Jesus' time and hear him preach, they would not need an interpreter to understand the Sermon on the Mount or the parable of the prodigal son.</p>

An example of ancient Hebrew script...a derivation of proto-Canaanite During the years I've been researching [My name is Reuven; An English teacher by profession, I...possess an insatiable desire to research anything pertaining to my Jewish roots. Born [and] raised in New York City, I have been an Israeli citizen for more than 30 years, and reside in the charming Galilian town of Karmiel] the Hebrew language and alphabet, I've been astounded to discover that the overwhelming majority of Jews and Christians - even observant ones - have been unaware of the existance of the original ancient Hebrew alphabet, the script...

A secret Bible in which Jesus is believed to predict the coming of the Prophet Muhammad to Earth has sparked serious interest from the Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI is claimed to want to see the 1,500-year-old book, which many say is the Gospel of Barnabas, that has been hidden by the Turkish state for the last 12 years. The £14million handwritten gold lettered tome, penned in Jesus' native Aramaic language, is said to contain his early teachings and a prediction of the Prophet's coming. The leather-bound text, written on animal hide, was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation...

The minister of culture and tourism on Thursday confirmed media reports suggesting that a 1,500-year-old Bible that was discovered by Turkish police during an anti-smuggling operation in 2000 is being kept in Ankara today. According to media reports on Thursday, the Bible was seized from a gang smuggling artifacts during a police operation in southern Turkey in 2010 and reportedly preserves its originality and many traces of the period in which it originated. The gang was reportedly convicted of smuggling various items seized during the operation, including the Bible, and all the artifacts were kept in a safe at an...

NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) - Authorities in northern Cyprus believe they have found an ancient version of the Bible written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus. The manuscript was found in a police raid on suspected antiquity smugglers. Turkish Cypriot police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript could be about 2,000 years old. The manuscript carries excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on vellum and loosely strung together, photos provided to Reuters showed. One page carries a drawing of a tree, and another eight lines of Syriac script. Experts were however divided...

Dallas Theological Seminary professor Daniel B. Wallace has said that newly discovered fragments from the Gospel of Mark could be the oldest New Testament artifacts ever found and date from the first century A.D., or during the time of eyewitnesses of Jesus' resurrection. Wallace announced his findings at UNC Chapel Hill on Feb. 1, 2012, during a debate in front of 1,000 people, where he unveiled that seven New Testament papyri had recently been discovered – six of them he said were probably from the second century, and one of them, the Gospel of Mark, probably from the first. The...

The Holy See’s archives contain scrolls, parchments and leather-bound volumes with correspondence dating back more than 1,000 years. High-quality reproductions of 105 documents, 19 of which have never been seen before in public, have now been published in a book. The Vatican Secret Archives features a papal letter to Hitler, an entreaty to Rome written on birch bark by a tribe of North American Indians, and a plea from Mary Queen of Scots. The book documents the Roman Catholic Church’s often hostile dealings with the world of science and the arts, including documents from the heresy trial against Galileo and...

BREAKING: Archaeologists Report 1st Direct Evidence of Jesus

New scientific evidence, including DNA analysis conducted at one of the world's foremost molecular genetic laboratories, as well as studies by leading scholars, suggests a 2,000-year-old Jerusalem tomb could have once held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. The findings also suggest that Jesus and Mary Magdalene might have produced a son named Jonah. The DNA findings, alongside statistical conclusions made about the artifacts--originally excavated in 1980--open a potentially signficant chapter in Biblical archaeological history. A documentary presenting the evidence, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," will premiere on the Discovery Channel on March 4 at 9 pm...

The cave in which Jesus Christ was buried has been found in Jerusalem, claim the makers of a new documentary film. If it proves true, the discovery, which will be revealed at a press conference in New York Monday, could shake up the Christian world as one of the most significant archeological finds in history. The coffins which, according to the filmmakers held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene will be displayed for the first time on Monday in New York. Jointly produced by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and Oscar winning director...

AL Capone's vault has met its match. I'm no scientist, but after watching a bunch of people who are scientists sift through the dust and bones of a 2000-year-old family burial chamber in Jerusalem, I have to offer this unscientific conclusion: There ain't no way them bones belong to Jesus. Or, if they are his bones, they don't come anywhere near proving it in "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," the Discovery Channel documentary that is supposed to rock Christianity to its very foundations. Well, I have some good news for Christianity: Your foundations are safe. Why were they going to...

r at least he's trying to kill the story of Jesus' resurrection. An upcoming 90-minute documentary directed by Jewish Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Titanic director James Cameron makes the startling assertion that Jesus was never resurrected -- a cornerstone of Christian faith -- and that his burial cave was discovered in the Jerusalem suburb of Talpiyot some 27 years ago. One more thing, Jesus fathered a son with Mary Magdelene. Cameron and Jacobovici claim they have DNA tests, archeological evidence and Biblical studies on their side. And on Monday, Cameron will hold a press conference in...

Odds of 'Lost Tomb' Being Jesus' Family Rest on Assumptions Until two weeks ago, University of Toronto statistician Andrey Feuerverger's body of research encompassed uncontroversial topics such as medical scanning and correcting for camera blurring. ... Prof. Feuerverger calculated there is just a one-in-600 chance that those same names would have come together in a family that didn't belong to Jesus of Nazareth. ... But the one-in-600 calculation is based on many assumptions about the prevalence of the names and their biblical significance. For purposes of his calculations, Prof. Feuerverger relied on new scholarly research that links the inscription "Mariamene...

The Jesus Dynasty Excerpt: 'The Jesus Dynasty' by James D. Tabor New Book Challenges Christian Philosophy April 7, 2006 -- James Tabor is the chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His book challenges many of the beliefs that Christians hold dear, maintaining that Jesus is neither the son of God nor the son of Joseph but most likely the child of a Roman soldier named Pantera. Jesus, Tabor maintains, became the head of the household when Joseph died and looked after his six half-brothers and sisters. When Jesus died, his brother James took over...

Oscar-winning director James Cameron defended on Monday his controversial new documentary, which claims that Jesus may have been buried with a wife and son, against charges the film was trying to undermine Christianity. Instead, the documentary that claims the discovery of the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family celebrates their existence, Cameron said at a press conference announcing the documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus." The message that Jesus delivered 2,000 years ago resounds even today, Cameron said. "My feeling is that his message of compassion, humility, love and forgiveness is every bit as much needed now in this...

This week “Titanic” director James Cameron and Canadian television director, Simcha Jacobovici stood proudly at the New York City library to announce the release of a new book and documentary called “The Tomb of Jesus.” They claim to have uncovered the remains of Jesus and his family, including Mary Magdalene, (Jesus’ supposed wife) and their child, Judah. If he were honest, this is what Mr. Cameron would have said to the press: “My dearest friends in the media, Thank you for being here. I must admit, I am pleasantly surprised so many of you have come. Our public relations company...

Year after year in spring, a new crop of religious dandelions pop up in our post-Christian culture. Like the real ones growing in my yard, they make a colorful splash that briefly captures our attention, until we realize that they are only shallow-rooted weeds, not beautiful flowers planted long ago in the deep rich soil of the past, such as Easter lilies. Last year, it was the Gnostic nonsense of the "Da Vinci Code." We've had the "Gospel of Judas Iscariot," written centuries after the eyewitnesses were dead. This year it's a variation on the "Da Vinci" theme. We are...

Filmakers and researchers on Monday unveiled two ancient stone boxes they said may have once contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but several scholars derided the claims made in a new documentary as unfounded... ...Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypotheses holds little weight... Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun." Ancient semitic script is notoriously difficult to decipher... William Dever, an expert on near eastern...

Talpiot tomb Remember the tale of the Titanic? How it was supposed to be impregnable, and nothing could poke holes in it? How it would never be sunk? Well all I can say is that human hubris knows no bounds, and that hasn’t changed in the last century. On April 15th 1912 the supposedly leak proof Titanic rammed into an iceberg and sank—sank like a giant stone. Sank quickly, with great loss of life. Why do I bring this up? Because in one of the interesting ironies in recent memory, James Cameron the movie director who made the enormously successful...