Jesus’ tomb: “just hype”
In a report from the Catholic News Agency, one of the archaeologists responsible for the find said it was “just hype”.
Dr. Amos Kloner, internationally renowned archeologist who revealed the findings of the dig 10 years ago, criticized the filmmakers’ marketing strategy and said it is not based on proof, reported the Jerusalem Post.
As one of my friends over on CatholicSource pointed out in a post over on the discussion forum that “It’s Lent … so it’s time for the skeptics to trot this nonsense out.”
Kloner said a similar film was released 11 years ago, and the new film, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,†is simply a renewed effort to create controversy in order to make a profit.
Scripture scholar and historian, Ben Witherington, has a detailed explanation on his blog about this find. In fact, he calls it “much ado about not much“.
But, some are saying that critics of the find are jumping to conclusions hastily, and not looking critically at the facts. However, this find is nothing new. The tombs — yes, tombs (plural) — were found approximately 27 years ago. Critics and scholars have had ample time to examine the evidence.
Another scholar and historian, Darrell Bock, has also provided an explanation of the findings. Dr. Bock, along with Dr. Witherington, take the time to point out all the historical and Scriptural problems that have to be overcome in order to draw the conclusions that James Cameron makes. Both the historical and Scriptural aspects have been significantly studied, analyzed and scrutinized to the point where Biblical archaeological and historical scholarship does not dispute many aspects of the Scriptures that would have to be dismissed to arrive at the conclusions that Cameron and Co. try to dupe the public into believing.
And, from all this, there is one critical point that should be kept in mind about the supposed “son of Jesus”. Where is all the corroborating evidence?
See, Cameron is intending to present this as though it were the holy family, saying “here, I have found the tomb of Jesus” (which denies the bodily resurrection which so many who claimed to be witnesses to actually died for. Quite a testimony to truth in that alone.) along with “his son”, when there is no prior evidence Jesus had a son. Instead of doing the logical thing and saying, “Well this obviously can’t be the holy family because there is no evidence Jesus had a son”, Cameron and Co just jump off and make the claim.
If we simply stand back and look at what the scholars are saying, especially those very familiar with both the finds and the history, we will see how this all is a marketing scam perpetrated against both those of faith and those seeking faith.
Let us not waste much more time on it.
[tags]jesus tomb, catholic, catholicsphere, ben witherington, darrell bock, faith, jesus, mary magdalene, archeology, bible, scripture, news, discovery channel[/tags]
I guess it is true that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
So far, only the press in Witherington’s native Kentucky have delicately raised the issue of the pot calling the kettle bla…that is, the pot calling the ossuary cracked in Witherington’s overheated protestations (the gentleman protests too much, methinks)against the latest “biggest New Testament findâ€* in his lifetime.
Lexington County Herald, 2/27/07
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/16791591.htm
On his blog, Witherington fired a final salvo by referring to the Titanic and saying Cameron “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.”
In 2003, Witherington and co-author Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review, wrote in The Brother of Jesus that they believed an ossuary bearing the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus,” was authentic.
A few months after The Brother of Jesus was published, Israel’s Antiquities Authority decided that the ossuary was a fake. It charged the ossuary’s owner, Oded Golan, with fraud and illegally selling archaeological artifacts outside of Israel. His trial continues, 21/2 years after it began.
Witherington said that he and Shanks stand by their conclusion that the ossuary is authentic and are not likely to change their minds, regardless of the trial’s outcome.
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* “This is probably going to be the biggest New Testament find in my lifetime, as big as the Dead Sea scrolls,” said Ben Witherington, a New Testament professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.
National Geographic News
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/10/1021_021021_christianrelicbox.html
If Witherington can be such a zealot about HIS OWN wacky claims about HIS OWN phony ossuary, it would only be sporting of him to cut Simcha Jacobovici (Witherington’s former partner in crime. He was the man who helped Witherington hype his own phony “James Ossuary†about 4 years ago.) and James Cameron some slack.
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Here is one example of Witherington using his own phony ossuary to attackthe Ever Virginity of the Mother of God:
It is possible the inscription on the ossuary–”James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus”–provides us with a challenge in regard to some basic Christian assumptions about James. The Roman Catholic tradition is that Jesus’ brothers and sisters actually were cousins; Orthodox Christians believe they were Joseph’s children by a previous marriage. The inscription conflicts with both of those Christian traditions, in fact, for there certainly was an Aramaic word for “cousin” that could have been used in this inscription but was not. If Jesus was the son of only Mary, and James was the son of only Joseph, then Jesus and James would not literally have been brothers, as this inscription states.”
–”In the Name of the Brother,” USA Today Weekend, April 13, 2003
Joe said this on February 27th, 2007 at 8:25 pm