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JESUS 'TOMB' CONTROVERSY REOPENED
By Tim McGirk
Time
January 16, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1704299,00.html

When the Discovery Channel aired a TV documentary last year raising the
possibility that archeologists had found the family tomb of Jesus Christ in
the hills behind Jerusalem, it caused a huge backlash among Christians. The
claim, after all, challenged one of the cornerstones of Christian faith --
that Jesus, after his crucifixion, rose bodily to heaven in his physical
form.

The Lost Tomb of Jesus, made by Hollywood director James Cameron and
Canadian investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici, was shown only once on
Discovery. Britain's Channel 4 canceled its own plans to air the
documentary, which reexamines an archeological find from 1980 in which a
crypt was found containing what were said to be the ossuaries of Joseph,
Mary, Jesus, the son of Joseph, Mariamne (possibly Mary Magdalene, say the
filmmakers) and Judah, son of Jesus. Given the highly explosive nature of
its conclusion and its slapdash sleuthing, it was no surprise that the film
was panned by some academics and many Christian clerics.

Still, even after the furor over the film faded, the questions it raised
about the tomb unearthed in 1980 continued to make waves among archeologists
and Biblical scholars. A leading New Testament expert from Princeton
Theological Seminary, Prof. James Charlesworth, was intrigued enough to
organize a conference in Jerusalem this week, bringing together over 50
archeologists, statisticians and experts in DNA, ceramics and ancient
languages, to give evidence as to whether or not the crypt of Christ had
been found. Their task was complicated by the fact that since the tomb was
opened in 1980, the bones of the various ossuaries had gone missing through
a mishap of Israeli bureaucracy. Also gone were diagrams made by excavators
that showed where each stone sarcophagus lay inside the tomb, and what the
family relationships might have been, say, between Jesus and Mary Magdelene,
who some speculate may have been his wife.

After three days of fierce debate, the experts remained deeply divided.
Opinion among a panel of five experts ranged from "no way" to "very
possible". Charlesworth told TIME: "I have reservations, but I can't dismiss
the possibility that this tomb was related to the Jesus clan." Weighing the
evidence, says Charlesworth, "we can tell that this was the tomb of a Jewish
family from the time of Jesus. And we know that the names on the ossuaries
are expressed the correct way as 'Jesus, son of Joseph.'" But the professor
has a few doubts. "The name on Jesus's ossuary was scrawled on, like
graffiti. There was no ornamentation. And there should have been. After all,
his followers believed he was the Son of God."

There was a revelation of sorts. The widow of Joseph Gat, the chief
archeologist of the 1980 excavation electrified the conference by saying:
"My husband believed that this was Jesus's tomb, but because of his
experiences as a Holocaust survivor, he was worried about a backlash of
anti-Semitism and he didn't think he could say this."

The tomb was found by construction workers digging the foundations for an
apartment building in the Talpiot hills, a modern suburb of Jerusalem. Gat
and two other archeologists excavated the tomb, which had been vandalized
centuries earlier. The ossuaries, including one with the scrawl "Jesus, son
of Joseph" were moved into an antiquities warehouse where they languished,
forgotten, until a BBC film crew in 1996 dusted them off. Jacobovici took
the story further, using statistics -- later disputed by experts -- which
seemed to indicate that, although Jesus and the others were all common
Jewish names during the days of the Second Temple, the chances of them all
being found in the same crypt, belonging to the same family, were rare
indeed.

The debate over Jesus' supposed tomb will probably rage for years to come.
But the conference attendees voted unanimously that the tomb, now sealed
over with concrete in the garden of a suburban apartment building, should be
reopened and examined more carefully. "I feel vindicated," Jacobovici told
TIME. "It's moved from 'it can't be the Jesus' family tomb' to 'it could
be.' "

Charlesworth, who is also a Methodist minister, says that the possible
discovery of Christ's tomb will illicit mixed reactions among Christians.
Most, he believes, will view it positively. The faith of some believers, he
says, will be buoyed by historical proof that Christ, the son of Joseph and
Mary, did exist. "I don't think it will undermine belief in the
resurrection, only that Jesus rose as a spiritual body, not in the flesh."
He adds: "Christianity is a strong religion, based on faith and experience,
and I don't think that any discovery by archeologists will change that."

.............

NHNE's "Lost Tomb Of Jesus" Resource Page:
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/jesustomb/

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Published by David Sunfellow
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