Cameron defends Jesus tomb documentary

CTV News ^ | 2007-02-26 | (staff)

[Clive]

Oscar-winning director James Cameron defended on Monday his controversial new documentary, which claims that Jesus may have been buried with a wife and son, against charges the film was trying to undermine Christianity.

Instead, the documentary that claims the discovery of the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family celebrates their existence, Cameron said at a press conference announcing the documentary "The Lost Tomb of Jesus."

The message that Jesus delivered 2,000 years ago resounds even today, Cameron said.

"My feeling is that his message of compassion, humility, love and forgiveness is every bit as much needed now in this divisive, materialistic and war-torn world."

But church representatives and archeologists are rejecting the claims of a Canadian documentary filmmaker who says he has found the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family, a claim that would have profound implications for the Christian faith.

"I think this is more fanciful and absurd theorizing. Every Christian knows that Jesus, the son of God and man, died and rose again on Easter Sunday," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Catholic Church in New York, where the news conference on the discovery will be held on Monday.

"No alleged DNA test or Hollywood film is going to change that," he told the New York Post.

Cameron and Emmy-award winning Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici

say that the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family has been found, a claim that would have profound implications for the Christian faith.

"This has been a three-year journey that seems more incredible than fiction," the Jacobovici said earlier. "The idea of possibly finding the tomb of Jesus and several members of his family, with compelling scientific evidence, is beyond anything I could have imagined."

The film suggests that ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his family are now stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.

The tomb where the remains were found was unearthed in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the construction of an apartment building in 1980.

During the excavation, archeologists found 10 ossuaries and three skulls. Six of the ossuaries had names inscribed into them: Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria, Mariamne, Joseph and Matthew.

At the time, the finding raised few alarms, as these had been common names at the time of Jesus.

Years later, a BBC crew that stumbled across the collection in a store room belonging to the Israeli Antiquities Authorities began work program that focused on the tomb.

Jacobovici's documentary uses scientific methods, including DNA testing, statistical analysis and forensic examination, not available to the BBC 11 years ago.

If the claims are correct, and the tombs belonged to the holiest family in Christendom, the discovery could shake the foundations of the Christian faith with the speculation that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene.

DNA tests conducted for the documentary at Lakehead University on two ossuaries -- one inscribed Jesus son of Joseph and the other Mariamne, or Mary -- confirm that the two were not related by blood, so they were likely married.

"Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggest and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty - a secret hidden through the ages," narrator Ron White says in the documentary.

"A secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb."

Traditional Christian beliefs maintain that Jesus was physically resurrected to heaven while more liberal interpretations have permitted for a spiritual ascension.

The claims follow years of growing interest in the private life of Jesus, fuelled by the 2003 Dan Brown novel "The Da Vinci Code," which was made into a movie last year.

In Brown's novel, which was denounced by church figures around the world, Jesus is said to have married Mary Magdalene and sired a daughter.

Jacobovici has said the findings should not threaten anyone's belief in the resurrection, as he does not argue that Jesus did not ascend to heaven at least spiritually.

But critics are already speaking out against the documentary's claims.

"It's a beautiful story but without any proof whatsoever," Amos Kloner, professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Kloner researched the tomb for the Israeli periodical Atiqot in 1996.

"The names . . . found on the tombs are names that are similar to the names of the family of Jesus. But those were the most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE (before the common era) and CE (common era)."

In The Lost Tomb, however, University of Toronto statistician Andre Feuerverger calculates that the chances of the names being found together are 600 to one.

He says that the Maria on one of the ossuaries is the mother of the Jesus found on another box, that Mariamne is his wife and that Joseph -- inscribed as the nickname Jose -- is his brother.

Jesus' mother was known after his death as Maria, the Latin form of Mary, as more Romans became followers. Mariamne is the Greek form of Mary. Mary Magdalene is believed to have spoken and preached in Greek. Jose was the nickname used for Jesus' little brother.

Furthermore, the tomb is the only site where ossuaries have been found with the names Mariamne and Jose, the documentary's creators claim.

Another famous ossuary, inscribed James son of Joseph brother of Jesus, is also featured in the documentary.

Of the 10 ossuaries found at Talpiot, one later went missing. Many experts have speculated the coffin is that of James, which was put on public display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Furthermore, forensic testing of the patina on the Jesus ossuary and that of James concluded they came from the same tomb.

Feuerverger says that if James is added to the equation, there is a 30,000 to one chance that the Talpiot Tomb belonged to Jesus' family.

Another calculation, commissioned by James Tabor, chair of the department of religion studies at the University of North Carolina, puts the odds at one in 42 million.

Another researcher, whose work has focused on the Middle East, biblical anthropologist Joe Zias, has rejected the claims as "dishonest."

"It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Jerusalem, and if the family was wealthy enough to afford a tomb, which they probably weren't, it would have been in Nazareth, not here in Jerusalem," Zias told CBS.

The $4-million documentary will air on Canada's Vision TV on March 6 and two days earlier on Discovery U.S.

The companion book, "The Jesus Family Tomb" (HarperCollins) by Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, has just been released.

[Sue Perkick]

The only decent thing that idiot ever did was cast Robert Patrick in T2.

[Sue Perkick]

Just like Last Temptation, the DaVinci Code, the "gospel" of Judas & everything else that we've seen over & over again. The true believers will not be swayed by it.

[Mr. Lucky]

...nor will the true archeologists, nor the true historians.

[CitizenUSA]

Halgr wrote: "I have watched a lot of forums today - Freepers, RaptureReady, ChristianForum.com et el.....and nowhere am I seeing anyone saying they are going to call or write or even email a protest to the Discovery Channel....am I the only one?"

Why bother? They are unlikely to do anything about it, and the more uproar they create, the more viewers will see it. The best thing to do is ignore it.

[GulfWar1Vet]

Exactly.

Let's not talk about this film. Less talk, less interest. God knows what He did on Resurrection Day, so did His Son.

Why fret about it?

[blazematrix]

Jesus did die and was resurrected.

The freemason/elite/anti-christ/allreligionareone crowd are working very hard to destroy Christians and atheists to help promote their gods (the twelve). These humans are using the (MMGIMC) Mainstream-Media-Governmental-Industrial-Military-Complex to do it with.

BM

[highlander_UW]

"Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggest...

Wow, I didn't know DNA could identify who married each other. Can it also identify who was divorced? /s

[SunkenCiv]

:') It's a topic that keeps on comin'. ;')

[sonic109]

Totally agree with you .
Read the book The Medici Conspiracy. You wont believe the amount of total frauds there are in the Middle east ( and Italian) antique business. This is REAL junk science . The story has 1000 hole sin it . Look at Camerons past projects,look at REAL scientist views of these boxes. he fails to give ANY details of the DNA evidence. What DNA evidence? I though the bones were lost? He'd still need DNAA from a Jesus decendant alive now for comparison . Complete nonsense here.

[SunkenCiv]

thanks go to GoLightly and xcamel for compiling the list (thus far) of such topics:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1789769/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1789966/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790456/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790579/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790608/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1790818/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1790884/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790953/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791244/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1791251/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791352/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791365/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791383/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791513/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791544/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791583/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791588/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791610/posts

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[Liberty Valance]

Amazing post.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791383/posts?page=110#110

[BelegStrongbow]

Not to mention he'd need DNA from Jesus Himself. Not sure how one acquires this.

There is some hope that sanity will somehow prevail: the local top news station here had a short piece on it, but the info as supplied clearly showed that the rebuttals in the MSM and perhaps here and elsewhere in the blogosphere completely blunted the publicity value of Cameron's press release. The average viewer is left with little more than a puzzle, the biggest one being why was he/she showed this limestone box?

[SunkenCiv]

Joe Zias, a physical anthropologist and archaeologist who formerly worked for the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) but was let go during a budget squeeze in 1997... in August 2003, Zias (unnamed) had given a sworn deposition to the Israeli police swearing to having seen the ossuary in the antiquities shop -- without "brother of Jesus" on it.

update:

Former IAA employee Zoe Zias told several archaeologists and BAR editor Hershal Shanks in 2003 that he had previously seen the James Ossuary in a Jerusalem antiquities shop without the words "brother of Jesus" at the end of the inscription. At the trial, he admitted he had not seen the inscription and could not read it if he had. -- Joe Zias Under Oath | Excerpts from the Forgery Trial of the Century | Biblical Archaeology Society Staff | 06/14/2012