Posted on 02/23/2007 5:50:36 AM PST by Rb ver. 2.0
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 James Cameron, the film tells the exciting and tortuous story of the archaeological discovery.
The story starts in 1980 in Jerusalem’s Talpiyot neighborhood, with the discovery of a 2,000 year old cave containing ten coffins. Six of the ten coffins were carved with inscriptions reading the names: Jesua son of Joseph, Mary, Mary, Matthew, Jofa (Joseph, identified as Jesus’ brother), Judah son of Jesua (Jesus’ son - the filmmakers claim).
Decades of research
The findings in the cave, including the decipherment of the inscriptions, were first revealed about ten years ago by internationally renowned Israeli archeologist Professor Amos Kloner.
Since their discovery, the caskets were kept in the Israeli Antiquities Authority archive in Beit Shemesh, but now two have been sent to New York for their first public exhibition.
Although the cave was discovered nearly 30 years ago and the casket inscriptions decoded ten years ago, the filmmakers are the first to establish that the cave was in fact the burial site of Jesus and his family.
The film, which documents the stages of the discovery, is the result of three years labor and research. It will be broadcast on the international Discovery Channel, Britain's Channel 4, Canada’s Vision and Israel’s Channel 8, which also took part in the film's production.
According to the filmmakers, the film’s claim is based on close work with world-famous scientists, archeologists, statisticians, DNA specialists and antiquities experts.
Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
Normally they were put in a tomb, for as much as a year, embalmed and wrapped in cloth, after which the bones were gathered and put in carved boxes. These boxes were smaller than our modern coffins, normally just long enough to hold the femur, and the other bones packed around it.
The cave in question was discovered in 1980, and the bones found in it was reburied. I could not find any detailed description of whether all the boxes contained bones. There may have been some fragments to conduct DNA tests on, which would prove or disprove lineage among those buried there.
However, it may not even be relevant, since other scholars who examined similar burial boxes came to the conclusion that any mention of Jesus name were dedications or commemorative, like we see on modern tombstones, and it may be similar here.
The other theory, already mentioned, is that this may simply be coincidence, with common names from the era. At least three pieces of evidence point that way, the son of Jesus (not mentioned in any historical source), name of his brother (inconsistent with the NT account), and then the fact that there are two Mary's in the tomb, without any historical evidence that the Christian Jesus was married to a Mary before He was crucified and bore a son(the only way that the proposed hypothesis could hold true). We will have to see the movie to understand who they exactly say the ten people are buried in the tomb. The presence of a "Matthew" in a family tomb is also unclear to me right now.
Also, just in the NT account, there are two other instances of the name (Jesus) derived from the Hebrew "Joshua" mentioned (Luk 3:29 and Col 4:11), it was a pretty common name at the time.
One is a place immersed in darkness, a dead end, void of any positive stimuli. The other is a hole in the ground.
May I add that one contains pale, blind creatures that feed off of the dead carcasses of each other.
The other is a hole in the ground.
One typically contains bats and spiders in its upper reaches.
The other is a hole in the ground.
One is an above-ground hole.
The other is a hole in the ground.
I'm sure at least one of the the coffins was empty.
Now stop it! That's a vicious lie!
There has to be a televised trial first.
Great! Now Al Gore can take credit for building Noahs Ark.
At least it has a happy ending: Leonardo Dicaprio dies.
Actually Cameron is a very good director but in this case I think he's looking at the hundreds of millions the DaVini Code made and he wants to get in on the act.
Now the most common Jewish names are Cohen, Goldman, Silverman, Youngman, Spiderman...etc.
Only among South American baseball players.
This is really going to upset the mythicists who said there never was a real, historical Jesus.
Heck, we've found it in three or four places as is!
He won an Intermedia-globe Silver Award for that fraud. He should really clean up with this one. Do I hear Oscar? I wonder where he will find Jesus's brother's body next. Will it take another three years for the next documentary Will James turn up in the Valley of Kings next or perhaps France?
So many questions.
What's that mean? Was there no body that eventually was shed or is Jesus still walking around in his 2000 year old body?
Coffins weren't used in Jesus's day. This sounds like the sequel to the fraudulent 'brother of Jesus' bone box.
You asked, "Was there no body that eventually was shed or is Jesus still walking around in his 2000 year old body?" The body was vacated for a day or two, then Jesus came back into His body and resurrected it. Christians will have a similar resurrection, a transformed body which will exist in a timeless state.
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