Re: [asa] The Lost Tomb of Jesus

All I know about this is from the news conference the film
makers just gave, (Cameron et al.) And they were very
impressive. They were very believable, and persuading.
 They answered all of the reporters questions who
presented many of these arguments.

It appears they have a lot of scientific evidence to back
them up. And they readily admit where assumptions are
made. They claim that the documentary is balanced and
presents arguments on both sides, but in the end concludes
that this is Jesus's tomb among other things.

Skeptics are going to be skeptics. But, the Christian
community, especially the scientifically mided Christian
community, is going to have to be familiar with the ideas
and evidence in this film, and is going to either have to
have substantial evidence proving it is not true, or
making it seem very unlikely. Or, there is going to have
to be some theological work done to deal with this
evidence.

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 10:45:04 -0700
  "Rich Blinne" <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/26/07, drsyme@cablespeed.com
><drsyme@cablespeed.com> wrote:
>>
>> None of us may really be able to say anything
>>intelligent
>> about this until March 4, when the documentary premiers
>>on
>> the Discovery Channel.
>>
>> Nevertheless, we all need to be aware of this.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://newsblaze.com/story/20070225195821howa.nb/newsblaze/NEWSWIRE/NewsBlaze-Wire.html
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu
>>with
>> "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the
>>message.
>>
>
>>From here:
> http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/02/25/tomb_arc.html?category=archaeology&guid=20070225073000&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000
>
>
>> Robert Genna, director of the Suffolk County Crime
>>Laboratory in New York,
>> analyzed both the patina taken from the Talpiot Tomb and
>>chemical residue
>> obtained from the "James" ossuary, which was also found
>>around 1980, but
>> subsequently disappeared and resurfaced in the
>>antiquities market. Although
>> controversy surrounds this burial box, Genna found that
>>the two patinas
>> matched.
>>
>
> What isn't mentioned here was the Israeili Antiquities
>Association in 2003
> found the chemicals in the patina in the James Ossuary
>to correspond to a
> modern-day forgery. So, if the patinas match then it is
>likely that the
> inscriptions are forged here also. It's the
>inscriptions that give force to
> the DNA analysis because it otherwise would be just an
>ordinary group of
> middle-class 1st centuries ossuaries where some but not
>all of the bones are
> related.
>
> Note also the following AP story:
> http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/16787620.htm
>
> Scholars, clergy slam Jesus documentary MARSHALL
>THOMPSON Associated Press
>
> *JERUSALEM - *Archaeologists and clergymen in the Holy
>Land derided claims
> in a new documentary produced by the Oscar-winning
>director James Cameron
> that contradict major Christian tenets. "The Lost Tomb
>of Christ," which the
> Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10
>ancient ossuaries -
> small caskets used to store bones - discovered in a
>suburb of Jerusalem in
> 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his
>family, according to a
> press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
>
> One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of
>Jesus," hinting that
> Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus
>had an ossuary would
> contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected
>and ascended to
> heaven.
>
> Most Christians believe Jesus' body spent three days at
>the site of the
> Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City.
>The burial site
> identified in Cameron's documentary is in a southern
>Jerusalem neighborhood
> nowhere near the church.
>
> In 1996, when the BBC aired a short documentary on the
>same subject,
> archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the
>first archaeologist
> to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by
>archaeological
> standards but makes for profitable television.
>
> "They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
>
> The claims have raised the ire of Christian leaders in
>the Holy Land.
>
> "The historical, religious and archaeological evidence
>show that the place
> where Christ was buried is the Church of the
>Resurrection," said Attallah
> Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The
>documentary, he said,
> "contradicts the religious principles and the historic
>and spiritual
> principles that we hold tightly to."
>
> Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of
>the Holy Land in
> Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said
>the film's hypothesis
> holds little weight.
>
> "I don't think that Christians are going to buy into
>this," Pfann said. "But
> skeptics, in general, would like to see something that
>pokes holes into the
> story that so many people hold dear."
>
> "How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one
>through 10 - 10 being
> completely possible - it's probably a one, maybe a one
>and a half."
>
> Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the
>caskets was read
> correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun."
>
> Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false.
>
> "It was an ordinary middle-class Jerusalem burial cave,"
>Kloner said. "The
> names on the caskets are the most common names found
>among Jews at the
> time."
>
> Archaeologists also balk at the filmmaker's claim that
>the James Ossuary -
> the center of a famous antiquities fraud in Israel -
>might have originated
> from the same cave. In 2005, Israel charged five
>suspects with forgery in
> connection with the infamous bone box.
>
> "I don't think the James Ossuary came from the same
>cave," said Dan Bahat,
> an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University. "If it were
>found there, the man
> who made the forgery would have taken something better.
>He would have taken
> Jesus."
>
> Although the documentary makers claim to have found the
>tomb of Jesus, the
> British Broadcasting Corporation beat them to the punch
>by 11 years.
>
> Osnat Goaz, a spokeswoman for the Israeli government
>agency responsible for
> archaeology, declined to comment before the documentary
>was aired.

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Received on Mon Feb 26 13:40:33 2007