Posted on 02/26/2007 3:50:03 PM PST by Laissez-faire capitalist
Filmakers and researchers on Monday unveiled two ancient stone boxes they said may have once contained the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but several scholars derided the claims made in a new documentary as unfounded...
...Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypotheses holds little weight...
Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was read correctly. He thinks it's more likely the name "Hanun."
Ancient semitic script is notoriously difficult to decipher...
William Dever, an expert on near eastern archeology and anthropology, who has worked with Israeli archaeologists for five decades, said specialists have known about the ossuaries for years.
"The fact it's been ignored tells you something," said Dever, professor emiritus at the University of Arizona. "It would be amusing if it didn't mislead so many people."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
James Cameron was responsible for this piece of cr_p. His movie "Titanic" was garbage, too. The only thing any good about it were the special effects in the last half hour when the actors shut up. Do you remember the scene when Leo and Kate where running up the stairs trying to escape the rising waters and they bumped into a priest who was praying for everyone's salvation and reciting the Lord's Prayer? The DiCaprio character made some sarcastic, mocking remark to the priest to "hurry up." This is the level of Cameron's intelligence. The Discovery Channel is going to wish they never aired Cameron's latest trash.
Got it. No more need be said.
Sunday, February 25, 2007, Yawn and double yawn,
http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/JWalking/2007/02/yawn-and-double-yawn.html
The bottom line from the whole, "Hey, I found Jesus' bones in a box!" thing by James Cameron - yawn and double yawn. There really isn't anything new - although I have no doubt that there are those who will make it seem like new news. This is a rehash of old accusations made about a tomb discovered 27-years ago. The best piece I've seen about it comes from The Jerusalem Post. Here it is in full: The Israeli-born, Canadian-based filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici is reigniting claims, first made over a decade ago, that a burial cave uncovered 27 years ago in Talpiot, Jerusalem, is the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family. At a press conference in New York on Monday, the two-time Emmy winner Jacobovici and his team - including Hollywood director James Cameron - will detail claims that of 10 ossuaries found in the cave when it was discovered in 1980, six bear inscriptions identifying them as those of Jesus, his mother Mary, a second Mary (possibly Mary Magdalene), and relatives Matthew, Josa and Judah (possibly Jesus's son). Their documentary will be screened this week in the US, UK, on Channel 8 in Israel and around the world. The producers are said to have worked on the project with world-renowned archeologists, statisticians and DNA specialists. But Bar-Ilan University Prof. Amos Kloner, the Jerusalem District archeologist who officially oversaw the work at the tomb in 1980 and has published detailed findings on its contents, on Saturday night dismissed the claims. "It makes a great story for a TV film," he told The Jerusalem Post. "But it's impossible. It's nonsense." Kloner, who said he was interviewed for the new film but has not seen it, said the names found on the ossuaries were common, and the fact that such apparently resonant names had been found together was of no significance. He added that "Jesus son of Joseph" inscriptions had been found on several other ossuaries over the years. "There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb," Kloner said. "They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle-class family from the 1st century CE." A spokeswoman for the Israel Antiquities Authority had no comment herself on the documentary and referred inquiries to Kloner, who no longer works for the IAA. The spokeswoman did say, however, that the IAA has loaned out two of the ossuaries that were found in the Talpiot tomb for display by the filmmakers at Monday's New York press conference. She said it was a routine procedure to lend out such artifacts provided the borrowers complied with the necessary handling, transport and insurance requirements and that it did not signal any IAA authentication of claims made in the documentary. Kloner said the IAA had been "very foolish" to agree to the loan. "The left hand there doesn't know what the right hand is doing," he said. The Daily Telegraph reported this weekend that the 10 ossuaries removed from the tomb when it was first excavated "were taken initially to the Rockefeller Archaeological Museum outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Nine were catalogued and stored but the tenth was left outside in a courtyard. That ossuary has subsequently gone missing." But Kloner said the IAA routinely left ossuaries in the courtyard if they were not inscribed and were unremarkable, since it had no room for them all "under our roofs." He added: "Nothing has disappeared." The Jacobovici documentary comes more than 10 years after similar speculation about the so-called Jesus family tomb made world headlines, prompting a London Sunday Times feature entitled "The Tomb that Dare Not Speak Its Name" and a BBC documentary. The assertion that the ossuaries found in the Talpiot tomb were those of Jesus of Nazareth and family members was branded by The Sunday Times at the time as an archeological discovery "that challenges the very basis of Christianity." The makers of the documentary are refusing to discuss its content prior to their New York press conference.
Cheek swab?
susie
No doubt there were many "Jesus" graves.
The really sad thing about this farce is that many uninformed will believe it to the peril of their souls. The church began only fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus. Whether you believe in the resurrection or not (and I do) the church began with a huge number of people really believing that Jesus was raised. If his body was in a tomb, and sometimes later his body was joined with that of his mother, and then a brother, etc., sufficient people would know about it for the Jews who were hostile to Christianity to produce the body. Then they could have said, "Here is your messiah". They could have used the remains of Jesus to squelch the movement. The reason they did not is because THERE WERE NO REMAINS. And there still aren't. And a common objection is, and a good one at that, "Where did the authors of this hoax get Jesus' DNA?"
Ok, Let me retry this. Where would they have gotten the sample of Christ's DNA they claimed to have used to match it to the body in the tomb?
Ok, Let me retry this. Where would they have gotten the sample of Christ's DNA they claimed to have used to match it to the body in the tomb?
wow. I thought GoLightly's list was large. I guess being away for a day makes a difference.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790953/posts?page=8#8
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1790953/posts?page=43#43
Somehow I feel after Geraldo Rivera and the Al Capone's Vault story we should be skeptical of these finds. - tom
I'm skeptical, you're skeptical, but your average reporter...
Guess my joke wasn't as funny as I thought it would be.
susie
Someone started putting the keyword "JESUSTOMB" & I've added it to the ones I come across. I don't think you have this one in the list yet.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1791610/posts
As Maxwell Smart would say the old "Shroud of Turin" trick. - tom
Nevermind my last post, cuz that link was to this thread. LOL
That is one of the problems with posting on the 'Net. I cannot hear your tone of voice. Sorry for misunderstanding. I thought you were serious!
You meant the same Shroud they all insist is a fake?
One thing which I have not seen anyone question. If this theory were to be proven. It would mean that Jesus, who had been flooged and crucified, survived the crucifixion and then went on to live a normal life, get married and have a kid in close proximity to all who had seen him die on a cross. Now does that make sense how that makes any sense? Nobody would recognize Him? Nah...Cameron is a typical Hollywood exploiter. He exploited the Titanic. and now he attacks our faith.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.