Documentary shows possible tomb of Jesus and family

[angel mikael]

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The Philippine Star

Feb. 28, 2007

New York (AP) -
Filmmakers and researchers unveiled Monday two ancient stone boxes they said may have once contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but serveral scholars derided the claims made in a new documentary as unfounded and contradictory to basic Christian beliefs.

"The Lost Tomb of Jesus," produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron and scheduled to air March 4 on the Discovery Channel, argues that 10 small caskets, called ossuaries, discovered in 1980 in a Jerusalem suburb may have held the bones of Jesus and his family.

One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son, according to the film. The claim that Jesus even had an ossuary contradicts the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

A panel of scholars that joined the filmmakers Monday at the New York Public Library addressed that criticism and others.

James Tabor, a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said that while literal interpreters of the Bible say Jesus' physical body rose from the dead, "one might affirm resurrection in a more spiritual way in which the husk of the body is left behind."

But Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said Christianity "has always understood the physical resurrection of Christ to be at the very center of the faith."

Cameron, who won an Academy Award for directing "Titanic," said he was excited to be associated with the Jesus film, which was directed by Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici.

"We don't have any physical record of Jesus' existence," he said. "So what this film...shows isfor the first time tangible, physical, archaeological and in some cases forensic evidence."

Jacobovici said that a name on one of the ossuaries --"Mariamene"--offers evidence that the tomb is that of Jesus and his family. In early Christian texts, "Mariamene" is the name of Mary Magdalene, he said.

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.

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The ossuraies do not contain any bones. The bones were reburied after their discovery, as is standard practice with archeological finds in Israel.

But Jacobovici said DNA evidence can nonetheless be collected from the boxes. He said DNA nalysis has so far proved that Jesus and Mariamene, the putative Mary Magdalene, were not siblings and therefore could have been husband and wife.


Note: Read the newspaper to know the whole story since it is long if I type it all here.

Discovery Channel link http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence...out/about.html

Another "Da Vinci Code" bruhaha? What do you think?

[SamuraiArcher]

nindot ni tan-awon nga docu ....

[arnolfu]

Somehow, somewhere some oil rich Arab is funding all these things to discredit Christianity.

If only one devout billionaire Christian or perhaps, a group of millionaire Christians would spend the same obscene amount and risk their lives from fatwas by funding the same investigative (expose) journalism about the prophet Mohammed or Islam ... that will be the day.

[dewi]

naa na ni lain nga thread. pls use the search function first before posting.

[angel mikael]

naa na ni lain nga thread. pls use the search function first before posting.

administrator, paki erase nalang ni na thread. Ty