Who Is Your Historical Jesus?: A Documentary Review

As more and more time separates humanity from the reality of Jesus’ life and presence on earth, both curiosity and skepticism of his existence has grown. In response to understanding the “unascertainable,” theologians, philosophical thinkers, scholars and experts have driven forth the quest for the historical Jesus. N.T. Wright comments that the primary question on people’s minds, and in the Christian realm, concerning this quest is whether or not there is really anything new to say about Jesus. Secondarily, if new facts and so called discoveries arise, do they deny the authority of the Church’s traditional teaching or the wholeness of Scripture? Furthermore, one must consider what these discoveries mean in the context of personal faith. These very queries accompany James Cameron’s documentary, The Lost Tomb of Jesus.

In The Lost Tomb of Jesus, well-known Canadian journalist Simcha Jacobovici (“The Naked Archeologist”) uncovers the facts to ask, “has the tomb of Jesus really been discovered?” Cameron’s documentary is made with the intention of proving that “the 2,000 year old ‘Tomb of the Ten Ossuaries’ belonged to the family of Jesus of Nazareth” (discovery.com). His argument finds its foundation in four key claims: the inscriptions found on the ten ossuaries align with Jesus’ genealogy and NT records - together they are a rare combination; the ossuary of Jesus is in the tomb; the “unique” chevron found over the entrance of the tomb, along with an “omega”/”toah” that looks like a cross on the ossuaries, are ancient Christian symbols; DNA testing of two members “Jesus Bar Joseph” and “Mariamne” (Mary Magdelene) are unrelated and thus, married.

The alleged Jesus family tomb, was uncovered in 1980 at Talpiot, Jerusalem during construction. Archeologists rapidly examined and catalogued the ten ossuaries, which bore typical inscriptions with common names of the first century, identifying the bones of individuals once held inside. The inscriptions included names such as, “Jesus Bar Joseph”, “Maria” (the virgin?), “Mariamne” (Mary Magdelene?), “Judah Bar Jesus” and “Matthew.” Could these combination of names point to the Jesus family? Cameron plows ahead with the documentary insisting that all leading ephigraphers agree on the ossuary inscriptions. In spite of this, one oddity of this theory immediately rises to the surface. Hebrew tradition dictates that an individuals body would be returned to their place of birth and buried. Talpiot was not Jesus’ birthplace, so why break with tradition? Also, why include other unrelated members in Jesus’ tomb (ex. Mariamne)? Tested DNA samples taken from the ossuaries of Mariamne and Jesus Bar Joseph from The Lost Tomb proves that these members were not related. From this reasoning, the assumption is made that Jesus and Mary Magdelene were married and perhaps, even had a son (ossuary included in the tomb)?! Regardless of DNA testing, Mariamne could have been wife to another member of the family.

The Gospels tell us that Jesus was buried in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (Matt 28:12) but rumor spread that things were done differently. Two proposed burial services were said to be conducted: a secret one done by the disciples and a second, attended by Jesus’ family a year later when the bones would be put into an ossuary, inscribed and placed into a niche in the family tomb. From this point on, Cameron’s documentary forces Christianity to examine key theological considerations in regards to the resurrection and ascension. In both considerations, a matter of faith is challenged and possibly contradicted. Finding the bones of Jesus would mean a bodily resurrection and spiritual ascension took place. Following through with this assumption, we too, would have a spiritual ascension. The issue here is that Jesus came in mortal body and ascended in the manner recorded for our sake, not God’s, so that we would have hope in our humanity.

In response to The Lost Tomb, Joe Amaral produced a rebuttal, Unearthed: The truth about the Lost Tomb of Jesus, using the same experts, with the exception of one, Father De Luca, the authority of Mary Magdelene.

Unearthed reveals a crucial element observed by Amaral connected to the use of the ossuaries. Sometimes ossuaries were used to hold three or more bodies and the tombs could have housed up to thirty-five people. Here lies the bone of contention for the DNA testing done on the proposed Jesus and Mary Magdelene ossuaries. In addition, no testing was done to distinguish whether the DNA was human or animal. Amaral did further investigation, taking copies of the inscriptions found on the ossuaries to expert epigraphers. What was proposed to be the ossuary of Mary Magdelene, the inscription reveals that it is highly likely a husband (“Mara”) and wife (“Mary”) were buried together. Thirdly, tests done for matching patina are not possibly tenable because patina does not have “fingerprint” indentifiability to prove that the James ossuary was the “missing ossuary” of Talpiot. Also, the James ossuary had been photographed in 1976 before the Talpiot tomb was uncovered. It had already been exposed to one hundred years of sunlight. Camron’s claim that the chevron found above the entrance of the Talpiot tomb was an ancient symbol of Christianity is disputed with the proof that it is a masons mark for an ossuary lid or used as a popular decorative design. Finally, the symbol of the cross would never have been used to identify Jesus’ followers because it was a highly offensive sign of brutality to early Christians.

Althroughout the Lost Tomb, the evidence smells like a gospel of gnostic Hollywood, conveniently bias and horribly assumptuous. Leaps and bounds are made toward “truth” that, in the end are made with false pretenses. Author of The Ressurection File (2002), Craig Parshall counters the claims of James Cameron’s Lost Tomb of Jesus by remarking that; “numerous first century ossuaries are unearthed in Jerusalem regularly...our culture today is so quick to try to use so-called ‘science’ to reduce Jesus to a mere mortal, rather than a risen Savior” (www.cbn.com). Having established the challenge of faith with mortal humanity, what exactly do the implications of finding Jesus’ bones mean to one’s personal faith? Some say that if Jesus’ resurrection was spiritual and not physical, it would not destroy anything for them. In fact, it would bring them closer to God, knowing that Jesus was truly mortal. Yet, the very hypotheses brings about serious theological dilemmas which took theological thinkers thousands of years to work out. It would also obliterate the credibility of first-hand witness accounts of the disciples recorded in the Gospels and demeans the authority of Christian tradition as well as theology. We should just pack up and go home! However, I am not so sure that God would string along humanity with the bait of hope, founded on a lie, because he was bored. Moreover, why would such a ingenious Creator of the universe slack-off on his plans for Jesus, only to be taken down in one fell swoop by a single individual argument. Surely, God must be given more credit of organizing events regarding His ultimate plans for humanity. Above all, the importance of quest for the historical Jesus will never diminish in its importance. Every “new” discovery encourages an individual pursuit of who God truly is.

WORKS CITED

"The Lost Tomb Of Jesus" Discovery Channel. 2007. 26 Jan. 2009

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"'The Lost Tomb of Jesus: Lame Facts, Great Fiction." Christian Broadcasting Network. 26 Mar. 2007. 26 Jan. 2009

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Note: All blogs written and photographs taken by Natalie M. Steele are protected. Use of any pictures taken by Legendary26 Media, such as the above, without permission is seriously not recommended.