A new documentary, aired on the Discovery Channel on March 4 2007, claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, they had a son called Judah, and their family tomb has been discovered in Jerusalem. This documentary is produced by James Cameron, director of ‘Titanic.’
The heart of the programme is a tomb with a collection of ossuaries, or bone boxes, marked with names including Jesus, Mary, Joseph,
Matthew and Judah. This isn’t a new discovery – it was found in 1980.
Cameron interprets it as the family tomb of Jesus, his wife Mary Magdalene, and their son Judah, and he says that there is DNA evidence to support his identification.
(DNA is wonderful. It sounds so reassuringly modern and scientific. If there’s DNA evidence, it must be right!)
However…
- Names like Jesus, Joseph, Judah, Mary and Matthew were extremely common in
first century Israel. There really is no reason to think this was one
particular Jesus and Mary.
- The names on the ossuaries don’t match with what we know from the New
Testament of Jesus’s family.
- All the DNA evidence really does is to show whether the people in the
ossuaries were probably related to each other. It doesn’t prove any connection
with Jesus Christ.
- The Christian movement started with a belief that Jesus had been
physically raised from the dead. If the body of Jesus had been decaying in
some tomb near Jerusalem, (a) his followers wouldn’t have believed in his
resurrection as they did. Many of them were put to death for this belief, and
who is willing to die for something they don’t believe? And (b) the
authorities could have produced the body, and immediately killed off the
emerging Christian movement.
- The experts don’t agree with Cameron – including Amos Kloner, the
archaeologist who worked on the tomb in the 1980s. He calls the idea
‘impossible and nonsense.’
For more, read the blog postings by Ben
Witherington at….
The Jesus Tomb? ‘Titanic’ Talpiot tomb theory
sunk
Problems Multiply for Jesus Tomb
Theory
And
The Smoking Gun - Tenth Talpiot Ossuary Proved To Be
Blank
Witherington says that
‘James Cameron, the producer of
the movie Titantic, has now jumped on board another sinking ship full of holes,
presumably in order to make a lot of money before the theory sinks into an early
watery grave. Man the lifeboats and get out now.’
See also Darrell
Bock’s article: Hollywood Hype: The Oscars and Jesus’ Family Tomb, What Do They
Share?
Like The Da Vinci Code, the Tomb of Jesus is another load of
nonsense. Christians do not need to be worried by it. But also like The Da Vinci
Code, it gives us tremendous opportunities to share the Faith. I probably had
more conversations about the historic basis of Christianity in six months around
the time The Da Vinci Code was released than I did in the previous ten years. It
is a missional opportunity, as Brian Russell says. Let’s seize the day!
[Brian Couchman]
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