What is that jesus tomb everybody is taking about?can u give the details?

Answer 1

Documentary examines supposed remains of Jesus
By Laurie Goodstein Published: February 27, 2007

A documentary by the Discovery Channel claims to provide evidence that a crypt unearthed 27 years ago in Jerusalem contained the bones of Jesus of Nazareth.

Moreover, it asserts that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, that the couple had a son, named Judah, and that all three were buried together.

The claims were met with skepticism by several archaeologists and New Testament scholars, as well as outrage by some Christian leaders.

The contention that Jesus was married, had a child and left behind his bones — suggesting he was not bodily resurrected — contradicts core Christian doctrine.

Two limestone boxes said to contain residue from the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were unveiled with a flourish at a news conference on Monday at the New York Public Library by the documentary's producer, James Cameron, a filmmaker whose credits include "Titanic" and "The Terminator."

Cameron's collaborators onstage included a journalist, a self-taught antiquities investigator, New Testament scholars, a statistician and an archaeologist. Several of them said that they were excited by the findings but uncertain. "I would like more information. I remain skeptical," said the archaeologist, Shimon Gibson, a senior fellow at the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, in an interview after the news conference.

In recent years, audiences have demonstrated a voracious appetite for books, movies and magazines that reassess the life and times of Jesus, and there is a book timed to coincide with this documentary, which will appear Sunday.

"This is exploiting the whole trend that caught on with 'The Da Vinci Code,'" said Lawrence Stager, the Dorot professor of archaeology of Israel at Harvard, in a telephone interview. "One of the problems is there are so many biblically illiterate people around the world that they don't know what is real judicious assessment and what is what some of us in the field call 'fantastic archaeology.'" Stager said he had not seen the film but was skeptical.

New Testament scholars criticized the documentary as theologically dangerous, historically inaccurate and irresponsible.

"Of course, we want to know more about Jesus, but please don't insult our intelligence by giving us this sort of stuff," said Ben Witherington 3rd, a Bible scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary, in Wilmore, Kentucky. "It's going to get a lot of Christians with their knickers in a knot unnecessarily."

The documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," revisits a site discovered by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority in the East Talpiyot neighborhood of Jerusalem in 1980, when the area was being excavated for a building.

Ten burial boxes, or ossuaries, were found in the tomb, and six of them had inscriptions. The Discovery Channel filmmakers say, and archaeologists interviewed concur, there is no possibility the inscriptions were forged, because they were catalogued at the time by archaeologists and kept in storage in the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The documentary's case rests in large part on the interpretation of the inscriptions, which they say are Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, Matthew, Joseph and Judah.

In the first century, these names were as common as Tom, Dick and Harry. But the filmmakers commissioned a statistician, Andrey Feuerverger, a professor at the University of Toronto, who calculated that the odds that all six names would appear together in one tomb are one in 600, calculated conservatively — or as much as one in a million.

One box is said to be inscribed "Yeshua bar Yosef," in Aramaic, an ancient language closely related to Hebrew that is translated as "Jesus son of Joseph." The second box is inscribed "Maria," in Hebrew. Maria is the Latin version of "Miriam" — a name so common in first- century Israel that it was given to about 25 percent of all Jewish women.

But the mother of Jesus has always been known as "Maria" (which in English is "Mary"). The documentary says that while thousands of ossuaries have been discovered, only eight have had the inscription "Maria" spelled phonetically in Hebrew letters.

The third box is labeled "Matia," Hebrew for Matthew, and the filmmakers cite a reference in the New Testament to buttress their claim that Mary had many Matthews in her family and it would make sense to find one in the family tomb.

The fourth box is inscribed "Yose," a nickname for the Hebrew "Yosef," or "Joseph" in English. Again, the filmmakers turn to the New Testament Gospels, which refer to four "brothers" of Jesus: James, Judah, Simon and Joseph. Scholars disagree on whether these were actual brothers, companions or cousins, but the filmmakers infer that the inscription refers to a brother of Jesus.
Perhaps the most shaky claims revolve around the inscription on the fifth box, which the filmmakers assert is that of Mary Magdalene. It is the only inscription of the six in Greek, and says "Mariamene e Mara," which the filmmakers say can be translated as "Mary, known as the master."

The filmmakers cite the interpretation of a Harvard professor, François Bovon, of the "Acts of Phillip," a text from the fourth or fifth century and recently recovered from a monastery at Mount Athos in Greece. The filmmakers say that Bovon has determined from the "Acts of Phillip" that Mariamene is Mary Magdalene's real name.

The filmmakers commissioned DNA testing on the residue in the boxes said to have held Jesus and Mary Magdalene. There are no bones left, because the religious custom in Israel is to bury archaeological remains in a cemetery.

Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.

Regards,

Chris

Answer 2

Filmmaker James Cameron is claiming he and some archeologists found the tomb of Jesus’s family. All the casket-like things called ossuaries are empty. I wonder what the archeologists were thinking when they found an ossuary with Jesus’s name on it. I can imagine the moment they removed the lid and looked in. If it were me, I’d wonder if I was going to see one of the following:

1. Nothing
2. Decomposed stuff
3. Jesus sitting up and saying, “What in Dad’s name took you so long?”

If you put an ordinary guy in an ossuary for 2,000 years, he’d clearly be dead. But if I were opening that ossuary I’d be wondering if maybe someone put Jesus in there after he died but before he arose. And maybe it’s hard to get out once you get in. I’d be worried that Jesus arose inside the stone box, and he’d be totally pissed that no one let him out until now.

I realize that this would not be the most rational worry in the world. But I like to base my worries on an expected value calculation. So for example, a 90% chance of getting a sliver would worry me about the same as a .000001% chance of a nuclear bomb going off in the backyard. In this ossuary example, I’d be looking at maybe a 2% chance of waking up an angry Jesus. I say that’s worth a worry.

If Jesus was in there, and sat up when I took the lid off, I’d first try to judge how angry he looked. If he had that money-changers-in-the-temple look, I’d go with a joke, like “Ha ha! Turn the other cheek!” Or maybe I’d try to explain to him that the extra suffering was extra good for humanity, and after all, that’s his job. Then I’d say, “Hey, I don’t like my job either, but you don’t see me complaining all the time.”

I know that some of you will say that if Jesus could move that big rock that was allegedly in front of his tomb in the traditional telling of his life, he’d have no trouble removing an ossuary lid. But he wasn’t supposed to be in an ossuary in the first place, so obviously if this ossuary is genuine, some of the details of the story were wrong. And if God let Jesus be crucified, it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to think he’d let him stay in a stone box for 2,000 years. It makes sense to save your coolest miracle for when it’s needed most. And I think you’ll agree that this would be a good time for a messiah. And if you were God, you’d want James Cameron attached to this production. So it makes sense to me.

That’s why I’d be a crappy archeologist. I’d be afraid to open anything.

Answer 3

Look the story up on a news service.
But,the theory has been thouroghly debunked.

The names found on the caskets were the most poular names in that time period.21% of Jewish women were named Mary!

There is no other DNA sample of Jesus or His family to compare the remains with.They could extract only two smaples of DNA,from two of the caskets.All it proved was that the two were not related.

Jesus' family were not even from Jerusalem.Jospeh's home he grew up in was in Bethlehem,and Jesus and his family lived in Galilee.Why would they be buried in Jerusalem,where they had no connection?

There is absolutely no evidence supporting the idea that Jesus was married or had a child,biblical or non-biblical.

The ossuaries that mention Mary,do not have any other descriptive features.They simply say 'Mary'.

The 'James son of Joseph,brother of Jesus' ossuary,which the makers of this film used to try and back up their claim,has been proven to be a forgery.

The main scholar who is the source for the story does not think it is Jesus' tomb.

Says Bar-Ilan University Professor Amos Kloner,"..those were the most common names found among Jews in the first centuries BCE and CE"

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." “"They just want to get money for it,"
Prof. Kloner said there was no way the tomb housed the Holy Family.
The senior Israeli archaeologist who thoroughly researched the tombs after their discovery, and at the time deciphered the inscriptions, cast serious doubt on it.
"It is just not possible that a family who came from Galilee, as the New Testament tells us of Joseph and Mary, would be buried over several generations in Jerusalem."

Kloner 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."

"Archeological evidence shows that chances of these being the actual
burials of the Holy Family are almost nil," said Motti Neiger, a spokesman for the
Antiquities Authority.


"Simcha has no credibility whatsoever," says Joe Zias, who was the curator for anthropology and archeology at the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem from 1972 to 1997 and personally numbered the Talpiot ossuaries. "He's pimping off the Bible … He got this guy Cameron, who made 'Titanic' or something like that—what does this guy know about archeology? I am an archeologist, but if I were to write a book about brain surgery, you would say, 'Who is this guy?' People want signs and wonders. Projects like these make a mockery of the archeological profession."

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. "How possible is it?" he said. "On a scale of one through 10 - 10 being completely possible , it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."


The official report written by Prof. Kloner found nothing remarkable in the discovery. The cave, it said, was probably in use by three or four generations of Jews from the beginning of the Common Era. It was disturbed in antiquity, and vandalized.

Answer 4

Man is saying that they found the tomb of Jesus and that he had a son named Judah. The Bible doesn't say that he was married and had children. Jehovah God inspired all the scriptures to be written and we would be wise to listen and obey our Creator rather than men. The Apostle Paul said do not go beyond the things that are written in the scriptures. When we do we get into traditions and man made beliefs.

Answer 5

It's yet another fictional story from yet another imaginative, liberal, money-making, Hollywood filmmaker... much like the whole DaVinci Code phenomenon. The claims are very similar to the Jesus Ossuary that was proven to be false.

NEWS ALERT: The bones of Jesus will NEVER be found. Because He is arisen and alive!

Answer 6

cobwebs, dust.
Its a bunch of nothing. James Cameron(the movie producer) suddenly becomes an archaeologist and declares he has found Jesus's tomb in Israel. Its just a gimmic to promote a new movie related to the subject he has coming out.

Answer 7

It is a highly deceitful LIE that James Cameron will have to answer to God for one day (God won't like his answer,that's for sure)
This latest lie and other numerous lies ( Davinci Code, Jesus Papers,Gospel of Judas..just to name a few) was foretold in the Bible happening in the latter days. These verses hit the nail on the head concerning these latter day false prophets:

2 Peter2:1-3
1.But there were also false prophets in Israel.just as there will be false teachers among you.They will cleverly teach their destructive heresies about God and even turn against their Master who bought them. Theirs will be a swift and terrible end. 2.Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality.And because of them.Christ and his true way will be slandered.

The kicker is verse 3 and HOW TRUE! :
3. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.But God condemned them long ago,and their destruction is on the way.


So you see, Satan is hard at work in these latter days for he KNOWS his time is short and he's furiously trying to trick and deceive as many as possible while he can . He's trying to lure as many to hell as he can. I pray for anyone who has been tricked by these false teachings.

Answer 8

Wow! Christians sure get defensive when people claim to have evidence that disproves their cult! I haven't seen them get this crazy since the Harry Potter books were going to turn all their little kids into witches and devil worshipers.

Oh and to the above posts: THE BIBLE WAS WRITTEN BY MEN!! Not god

Answer 9

Someone is claiming they have found a tomb that Christ was buried in. If he was buries than he wasnt resirected.....he dosnt exsist.

Answer 10

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070226/ts_alt_afp/usisraelreligionchristianityarchaeologyfilm;_ylt=AgrS42wISxdXBN37zDu0tE0DW7oF