If it is proven beyond reasonable doubt that the tomb found in 1980, and being presented as "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" by an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary, is in fact the ossuary (bone box) of Jesus Christ and the bones found inside (but since reburied) are the remains of Jesus Christ, will this fundamentally destroy christianity? Will it undermine the veracity in other areas of the new testament, a book that is supposed to be the 100% true, inspired and divine word of god?
2007-02-28 18:00:02 · 15 answers · asked by jgold 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
As a professional archaeologist, I can say that the odds of positively identifying ANY bones from two thousand years ago to a particular individual would be a nearly impossible task.
Markings on or in the tomb denoting it as Jesus's could have a variety of sources, and they don't mean that the bones in the tomb are his anyway. The best you're ever going to do in a case like this is use DNA from modern descendants and try to grab some aDNA rom those bones to match it up. There are several obstacles to this.
1) Good luck getting DNA out of bones that have been sitting in a cave in the desert for 2000 years. Then, good luck amplifying that DNA for a reliable test.
2) Good luck finding a modern descendant of Jesus, or anyone in Jesus's family. The hoax potential for this step would be astronomical.
3) A positive ID actually confirming realation between the bones and a modern ancestor does not mean that the bones belonged to Jesus. The best you can do is say they belong to someone in Jesus's family.
It's just not going to happen, and anyone who claims a positive result is going to have his work scrutinized into the bowels of the Earth, and for good reason...for the reasons I listed above. Positive ID of Jesus's remains will never happen in a scientific sense, outside of someone using a time machine and a video camera. Sorry, that's the reality of the situation.
2007-02-28 19:19:03 · answer #1 · answered by The Ry-Guy 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
No, it will not destroy Christianity. It may change it, but not destroy it. Ok, let's say it is proven beyond all doubt. There will be some Christians that even then, would not believe it. They may say the bones were placed there by Satan to challenge faith, or something like that. They'll come up with an answer.
The more reasonable Christians will admit the evidence, and merely change their theology a bit. For example, perhaps they will simply change the story and say that at Jesus' ascension, instead of going completely bodily into heaven, he received a new glorified body, and the one that was buried was the old, not-glorified body. Or they will say that he went spiritually into heaven, not bodily, as was previously believed.
There may be some Christians who would stop being Christians, but I figure that Christianity itself would stay.
2007-03-01 02:19:23 · answer #2 · answered by Heron By The Sea 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Just one more heresy out of many.
There were much more radical heresies than this one (i.e. Jesus' bones have been found), for example, that Jesus married Mary Magdalen and had a child with her, and that a secret society was formed in Italy to protect Jesus' bloodline and descendants.
Sound familiar?
That's because this heresy, courtesy expert heretic Dan Brown is only a few years old.
This new heresy is particularly weak because it attempts to use science to disprove a fundamental truth of religion, which is impossible (likewise, religion cannot be used to disprove fundamental truths of science).
2007-03-03 19:16:33 · answer #3 · answered by STILL standing 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No. Because a lot of other things in the Bible have been absolutely disproven, and they just deny it and explain it away. Evolution has been absolutely proven for the last couple of decades and they still deny it and explain it away by coming up with alternate stupid theories that don't make any scientific sense. They would probably be saying Jesus had an identical twin or something equally stupid.
2007-03-02 09:36:34 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Did OJ get away with murder in spite of DNA results that proved otherwise? There is no way any proof can be found to convince Christians it is Jesus. Or me either for that matter. The whole thing is just bull to promote a movie. You will be the first in line for a ticket.
2007-03-01 02:09:35 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Jesus said that heaven and earth would pass away, but His word will never pass away. Since Jesus was God made flesh, and God is not man that He should lie, it will never be possible for anything that God has ever said to be untrue.
These "bones" are just one more false thing, in a long, long line of false things....that will be passing away.
2007-03-01 02:27:01 · answer #6 · answered by Esther 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes,it would
But,we don't have to worry,because it is not the tomb of Jesus,and there is no way to prove that it is His casket.The film has many,may problems in it.
http://www.extremetheology.com/
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/
2007-03-01 02:12:42 · answer #7 · answered by Serena 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I always thought just his spirit rose from the tomb and his body remained.
2007-03-01 02:09:53 · answer #8 · answered by linkinparkchic 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, because it can't be proven. The whole thing is absurd.
$$$ People have found out that making controversial "documentaries" is a great cash cow.
2007-03-01 02:14:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I asked the same exact question earlier lol. Here's the link to see some of the answers.
2007-03-01 02:03:26 · answer #10 · answered by korngoddess1027 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋