'Ho-Hum: Jesus' Tomb? Jesus' Son There, Too?'
By J. Grant Swank Jr. (02/27/07)
It's terrific Lenten scoop. That is, the timing is perfect - Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday all in the near future. Why not then find the tomb with Jesus' bones to undercut the Gospel's resurrection accounts?
The devil made them do it. Right? Right.
So now AP’s Marshall Thompson reports that "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" produced by Oscar-winning director James Cameron will show on Discovery Channel on March 4.
The report details several "ancient ossuaries — small caskets used to store bones — discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus and his family."
Was not "Jesus" an extremely common name in the first century? The same for "Judah," the name supposedly attached to one of the caskets, the latter reading "Judah, son of Jesus."
And then of course there has to be Mary Magdalene standing in the wings. Sure enough. There is a casket for her as well. Ditto Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code.
Sure enough one of the caskets reads "Mariamene." Got it?
However, biblical and archeological scholars inform media that the name "Jesus" is not all that visible on the casket. In fact, one of the scholars believes the scratching to spell "Hanun." You see, "ancient Semitic script is notoriously difficult to decipher."
"In 1996, when the British Broadcasting Corp. aired a short documentary on the same subject, archaeologists challenged the claims. Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"’They just want to get money for it,’ Kloner said."
Exactly.
For the gullible, money will flow toward the casket finders.
"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.
"’I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this,’ Pfann said. ‘But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear.’"
Does it not get a bit tiring after awhile, that is, having to read about the fraudulent among us? Oh well, just part of living in the spiritually fallen sphere.
"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.
"Kloner also said the filmmakers' assertions are false. ‘The names on the caskets are the most common names found among Jews at the time,’ he said.
"William Dever, an expert on near eastern archaeology and anthropology, who has worked with Israeli archeologists for five decades, said specialists have known about the ossuaries for years.
"’The fact that it's been ignored tells you something,’ said Dever, professor emeritus at the University of Arizona. ‘It would be amusing if it didn't mislead so many people.’"
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