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New film claims Jesus buried in Talpiot [Chief Archeologist says it's "nonsense"]
Jerusalem Post ^ | Feb. 25, 2007 | DAVID HOROVITZ

Posted on 02/26/2007 3:59:41 AM PST by Mount Athos

The Israeli-born, Canadian-based filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is reigniting claims, first made over a decade ago, that a burial cave uncovered 27 years ago in Talpiot, Jerusalem, is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. [...]

But Bar-Ilan University Prof. Amos Kloner, the Jerusalem District archeologist who officially oversaw the work at the tomb in 1980 and has published detailed findings on its contents, on Saturday night dismissed the claims. "It makes a great story for a TV film," he told The Jerusalem Post. "But it's impossible. It's nonsense."

Kloner, who said he was interviewed for the new film but has not seen it, said the names found on the ossuaries were common, and the fact that such apparently resonant names had been found together was of no significance. He added that "Jesus son of Joseph" inscriptions had been found on several other ossuaries over the years.

"There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb," Kloner said. "They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle-class family from the 1st century CE."

A spokeswoman for the Israel Antiquities Authority had no comment herself on the documentary and referred inquiries to Kloner, who no longer works for the IAA.

The spokeswoman did say, however, that the IAA has loaned out two of the ossuaries that were found in the Talpiot tomb for display by the filmmakers at Monday's New York press conference. She said it was a routine procedure to lend out such artifacts provided the borrowers complied with the necessary handling, transport and insurance requirements and that it did not signal any IAA authentication of claims made in the documentary.

Kloner said the IAA had been "very foolish" to agree to the loan. "The left hand there doesn't know what the right hand is doing," he said.

The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that the 10 ossuaries removed from the tomb when it was first excavated "were taken initially to the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Nine were catalogued and stored but the tenth was left outside in a courtyard. That ossuary has subsequently gone missing."

But Kloner said the IAA routinely left ossuaries in the courtyard if they were not inscribed and were unremarkable, since it had no room for them all "under our roofs." He added: "Nothing has disappeared."

The Jacobovici documentary comes more than 10 years after similar speculation about the so-called Jesus family tomb made world headlines, prompting a London Sunday Times feature entitled "The Tomb that Dare Not Speak Its Name" and a BBC documentary.

The assertion that the ossuaries found in the Talpiot tomb were those of Jesus of Nazareth and family members was branded by The Sunday Times at the time as an archeological discovery "that challenges the very basis of Christianity."

The makers of the documentary are refusing to discuss its content prior to their New York press conference.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Israel; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amoskloner; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; jamescameron; jesustomb; letshavejerusalem; simchajacobovici; talpiot
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1 posted on 02/26/2007 3:59:43 AM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos

The devil is working overtime as of late.


2 posted on 02/26/2007 4:02:54 AM PST by newconhere (bzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. zap)
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To: Mount Athos

I'm waiting for James Cameron's next movie, "The Da Vinci Tomb", before I make up my mind.


3 posted on 02/26/2007 4:05:42 AM PST by HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath (All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.)
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To: newconhere
The devil is working overtime as of late.

You would figure he belongs to a Union...

4 posted on 02/26/2007 4:10:27 AM PST by gridlock (Isn't it peculiar that matter what the problem, the government's solution is always "more taxes".)
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To: Mount Athos
The Israeli-born, Canadian-based filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is reigniting claims, first made over a decade ago, that a burial cave uncovered 27 years ago in Talpiot, Jerusalem, is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. [...]

This is just a waste of media time. This person is just resurrecting old garbage in an effort to make some money. There is nothing credible involved...it's almost surprising that the media is wasting any time on it...except that it's an opportunity to try to get a dig in against Christianity.

5 posted on 02/26/2007 4:13:37 AM PST by highlander_UW (I don't know what my future holds, but I know Who holds my future)
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To: Mount Athos

There have been several novels speculating about the significance of this dig. The most recent is "Cross Bones" by Kathy Reichs.

I remember reading about this dig many years ago, before Christians get all outraged, these were common names in the 1st century.


6 posted on 02/26/2007 4:15:38 AM PST by Alouette (Learned Mother of Zion)
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To: Mount Athos
a burial cave ...is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family

That's absurd. Everyone knows that Jesus roamed the countryside for years with 12 friends (but was a 33-year-old virgin when he died), miraculously was raised from the dead, and floated off to somplace called "heaven" because he is the immortal son of God.

 

 


 

 

7 posted on 02/26/2007 4:18:15 AM PST by peyton randolph (What we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal - Albert Pike)
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To: gridlock
The devil is working overtime as of late.

You would figure he belongs to a Union...


Nope, the unions belong to him.
8 posted on 02/26/2007 4:22:25 AM PST by deaconjim (Because He lives...)
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To: Mount Athos
Let him jump on the wagon, this or something similar has been going for 2000 years..
9 posted on 02/26/2007 4:23:22 AM PST by gulfcoast6
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To: Gamecock

PING!


10 posted on 02/26/2007 4:24:33 AM PST by alpha-8-25-02 ("SAVED BY GRACE AND GRACE ALONE")
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To: peyton randolph

yes, well said. That about covers it.


11 posted on 02/26/2007 4:29:16 AM PST by cdcdawg
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To: HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath
At my wife's insistence, we finally watched The DaVinci Code Saturday night. For a Tom Hanks movie, it was worse than Joe vs The Volcano. I nodded off several times for 20 minutes or more, but was still able to keep up with what was going on. When it was over, my wife said it was like National Treasure, but less believable.
12 posted on 02/26/2007 4:29:43 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: newconhere

Lucifer has his "go fasters" on and running hard to get things more stirred up than usual You better believe it. His grand entrance should not be far off............via the EU and WWIII in the M.E....


13 posted on 02/26/2007 4:33:45 AM PST by tgambill (I would like to comment.....)
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To: gridlock

More likely a Legion.


14 posted on 02/26/2007 4:33:59 AM PST by stayathomemom
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To: highlander_UW
This is just a waste of media time

A perfect example of a Hyperbole.

15 posted on 02/26/2007 4:35:57 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Mount Athos

People that liked the alien autopsy should enjoy this film also.


16 posted on 02/26/2007 4:38:51 AM PST by DejaJude
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To: Mount Athos

Just like Al Gore's fictional work, "An Inconvenient Truth", this will be just another attempt to stir up controversy with supposition and what-ifs. Stories like this are good press and their perpetrators are hoping to follow the path of Dan Brown to fame and fortune. It's just storytelling with a goal of large financial returns.


17 posted on 02/26/2007 4:40:13 AM PST by BuffaloJack
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To: Mount Athos

Just in time for Time magazine's traditional Easter cover that attempts to debunk Christianity. It's as predictable as Daylight Savings Time.
Wonder when the intrepid truth-seekers at Time will come out with a "Was Mohammed a Fraud?" Ramadan cover?


18 posted on 02/26/2007 4:41:48 AM PST by kittymyrib
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To: Alouette
"I remember reading about this dig many years ago, before Christians get all outraged, these were common names in the 1st century."

...quite a few in this century, too.

Tourist: "Have you met Jesus?"

Villager: "Si, muchos!"
19 posted on 02/26/2007 4:47:29 AM PST by familyop
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To: kittymyrib
Wonder when the intrepid truth-seekers at Time will come out with a "Was Mohammed a Fraud?" Ramadan cover?

Don't hold your breath.

20 posted on 02/26/2007 4:48:05 AM PST by DejaJude
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