Jesus 'Tomb' Controversy Reopened

[Pale Blue Dot]

Wasn't this completely debunked awhile ago? What bothers me about this article is that it implies that Christians are the only ones questioning this because it disproves their theory of the resurrection. What about the skeptics who saw clear signs of a hoax?

And of course, no one would DARE mention the possibility that Jesus never even existed....

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1704299,00.html

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."

[cosmik debris]

1. I found the tomb of Spartacus.

On the ossuary it said "I am Spartacus"

:)

[Evoman]

2. No! I found the tomb of Spartacus.

It said "I am Spartacus!!"

[onager]

3. At least Spartacus was real.

Whenever I see this Jesus Tomb stuff, I'm reminded of an article I read about tourism in Georgia. I think this is on the web somewhere.

The tourism offices in Atlanta constantly get calls from idiots asking the following questions.

One woman working in a tourism office described a typical experience she had...

"We're visiting the Atlanta area and really want to see the graves of Rhett and Scarlett. Are they buried together, or in different cemeteries?"

"They are fictional characters, from the novel "Gone With The Wind."

"Well, I know that. Now where are they buried?"

"They aren't buried anywhere. They are FICTIONAL. They never existed. Margaret Mitchell made them up."

"Yes, yes, I know all that. So why won't you tell me where they are buried?"

This went on for a while until the woman finally hung up.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

6. Holy crap, that HAS to have been a prank call. -nt

[onager]

8. Sadly, no

The tourist bureaus around Atlanta get many calls like that every year, according to what I've read.

I found a similar story on a website where U.S. Park Rangers have a board about Stupid Tourists.

The Ranger who posted the story was working the front gate at California's Yosemite National Forest, when a woman drove up with her family.

She asked him where she could see the geysers.

He told her she would have to drive several hundred miles north, since all the geysers are in Yellowstone National Park, not Yosemite.

She got very indignant and insisted he was just saying that to annoy her. She knew damn well Yosemite had geysers. She had heard about them all her life.

After arguing for a while, she finally left. But when she got home after vacation, she wrote an irate letter to the Ranger's boss, complaining that he would not tell her how to find the geysers.

Every time I feel some small flicker of hope for humanity, I read something like that...

:rofl:

[and-justice-for-all]

4. Proving that this is the tomb of jeebus..

would destroy xtianity. The entire tale would become meaningless. jeebus did, as they claim, ascend into heaven in bodily form and therefore there can be no tomb. This would make him not the son of gawd, but a typical human.

But I am reluctant to give this any credit at all, they can after all find any old tomb they want and claim that it belong to jeebus. There is nothing historical pointing to a tomb of jeebus, where did they get this shit from, a Dan Brown novel?

With the lack of records from historians before, during and after the claimed time jeebus was said to live, it would be reasonable to think that they would have made some indication of his grand existence, would they not? but this is not the case. Of all the things that have been written down by historians, they seem to have left the jeebus bit out. Maybe it's because he never existed to begin with, just ask Mithra.

[onager]

5. Here you go.

But I am reluctant to give this any credit at all, they can after all find any old tomb they want and claim that it belong to jeebus. There is nothing historical pointing to a tomb of jeebus, where did they get this shit from, a Dan Brown novel?

"Any old tomb" pretty much sums it up.

The discovery of Christ's alleged tomb came about after the Emperor Constantine went on a tour of his eastern provinces. He was horrified to see so many pagan tombs, temples etc. still attracting huge crowds of gawkers. He seems to have been especially irked by a famous pagan tourist attraction in Egypt--the "Soma" or tomb of Alexander The Great.

Now a real professional will take over:

...Constantine welcomed the church fathers to a second meeting--the famous Council of Nicaea in June-July 325. Also present were Bishop Makarios of Jerusalem and Ossius, the president of the proceedings, who had recently returned from Alexandria...

The three men must have agreed that Christianity needed a counterweight, a grand tomb for Christ that would eclipse Alexander's mausoleum and all the non-Christian funerary monuments so beloved of pagans.

If Christ's tomb could be found, it would drive another nail into paganism's coffin and offer Christians and potential converts a focus for their devotion and a place to visit on pilgrimage...

Makarios returned to Jerusalem and within weeks was informing Constantine of his stunning and almost immediate success...

Makarios's find was a masterstroke and an unparalleled propaganda coup for Constantine...

Why, after three hundred years, was there a desperate need to provide Christ with a tomb? Why did Constantine order the search for it within weeks of Ossius's return frrom Alexandria? And how was it discovered almost immediately and against all odds?

The rock-cut tomb identified as Jesus's resting place was one of several and had no distinguishing features. No method of identification is recorded, and it appears to have been a random choice that somehow felt appropriate.

Professor Martin Biddle of Oxford University spent years investigating Christ's tomb and was forced to admit that "for reasons never stated, one of those tombs was immediately hailed as the Tomb of Christ."

From Alexander's Tomb: The Two Thousand Year Obsession To Find The Lost Conqueror by Nicholas J. Saunders

[and-justice-for-all]

7. That's grand...

I was right! hahaha!!!!