THIS WEEKS PRAYER

This week ask the Lord to reveal to you any areas in your life where you are out-of-control but have not accepted personal responsibility for your behavior. Ask Him to forgive you and to send His Spirit to work His fruit of self-control in your life. Thank Him that you will be able to overcome in all these areas. Continue to pray that He would send revival across our land and more laborers into His harvest field. Pray that the Iraqi war would come to an end and that the gospel would spread throughout Israel, the Middle East and over the entire world. I Thes. 5:17

The Lost Tomb of Jesus ?

Here are comments by Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.,
Retired Professor of Theology and Church History,
Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan

Several Adventists have asked me to comment on the newly released book and movie that allege that the tomb of Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and Mary Magdalene have been found in East Talpiot, a suburb of Jerusalem. The documentary promoting this view is entitled "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," and/or "The Jesus Family Tomb." It was aired on the Discovery Channel on March 4, 2007.

The documentary was spearheaded by a well-known Emmy-winner TV Director Simcha Jacobovici and produced by Oscar-winner "Titanic" Director James Cameron. These men argue that the bones of Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, along with lesser-known relatives, were found in 1980 in a Jewish burial cave containing 10 bone boxes, called ossuaries.

In many ways the movie and the book expands the Da Vinci Code fiction that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and the had children. The difference between the two is that while in the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown builds his case by using late gnostic heretical gospels, Jacobovici and Cameron use names inscribed in some bone boxes as well as gnostic gospels. Both movies and books attempt to destroy the foundation of the Christian faith by denying the Resurrection of Jesus. If it were true that Jesus never resurrected because his very bones and those of his family have been found, then as Paul puts it, "our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain . . . and we are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor 15:14, 19).

The 1980 Ossuaries' Discovery

The documentary is based on several bone boxes (ossuaries) that were found in an ancient tomb unearthed by a construction crew in 1980. That year marked a construction boom in Jerusalem. The result was that hundreds of tombs were uncovered containing thousands of bone boxes (ossuaries).

In Christ's time it was common for wealthy Jewish families to build tombs in the hills throughout Judea and place the remains of their loved ones in those caves. The procedure was to place a newly dead body on a rock shelf for about a year. When the flesh had desiccated it was customary to gather the bones and place them in a small limestone chest called "ossuary." Sometimes the name of the deceased would be inscribed onto the outside of the box. Eventually the caves became so crowded with bone boxes, that to conserve space several skeletons were placed in the same box. First century limestone bone boxes are so common in Israel today that they are used as planters in gardens and living rooms.

Though tombs' discoveries are very common, the Talpiot construction crew immediately stopped their work when they unearthed an ancient tomb. They called the Israel Antiquities Authority, that sent a small team of archeologists to excavate the site. Under pressure from the builders, the archeologists worked fast. The human remains in the cave, were given over to the religious authorities to be reburied in accordance with Jewish law.

Ten bone boxes (ossuaries) were taken away to the Israel Antiquities Authority warehouse. Six of them had inscriptions to remind family members of whose bones the boxes contained. Here are the names found carved on the bone boxes of the Talpiot tomb: Jesus, son of Joseph; Maria; Mariamene; Matthew; Judas, son of Jesus; and Jose, a diminutive of Joseph.

One of the bone boxes even bears the title, "Judah son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus had a son. The claim that Jesus even had an ossuary of His wife and children, contradicts the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.

Criticism of Archeologists

Archeologist Amos Kloner who oversaw the original archeological dig and wrote the official report, found nothing remarkable in the discovery. He says: "The names on the ossuaries are very common names or derivatives of names." In a Newsweek report he dismissed any possible connection with Jesus' family as "impossible." "It makes a great story for a TV film, but it's completely impossible. It's nonesense."

Joe Zias, the archaeology curator of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, dismissed the documentary as a "hyped-up film which is intellectually and scientifically dishonest. . . . Projects like these make a mockery of the archaeological profession" (Newsweek)."

Jacobovici disagrees very strongly with this criticism. He advances various arguments to prove the bone boxes found at Talpiot belong to Jesus Family. Competent archeologists find his arguments preposterous. For example, William G. Dever, a leading American archeologist who has been excavating ancient sites in Israel for the past 50 years, said to the Washington Post: "I have known these ossuaries for many years and so have many other archeologists, and none of us thought it was much a story, because there are rather common Jewish names from the period. It's is a publicity stunt, and it will make these guys very rich, and it will upset millions of innocent people because they don't know enough to separate fact from fiction."

Discrediting Considerations

The claims of the movie and book that the bones of Jesus's family have been found at the Talpiot tomb excavated in 1980, are discredited by the following factual considerations:

1) As far as we know, the earliest followers of Jesus never called Him "Son of Joseph." As a matter of fact, this is how Jesus was called by His opponents. This means that His family members would have never inscribed such a name on His bone box.

2) The ancestral home of Joseph was Bethlehem and his adult home was Nazareth. The family continued to live in Nazareth even after the death of Joseph. Why in the world would the family choose to carve an elaborate tomb to place their bones in a suburb of Jerusalem?

3) Even assuming that Jesus was buried, it would be most unlikely that He would be buried in or around Jerusalem, where Roman and Jewish authorities were searching for His body to disprove the widespread report of His Resurrection.

4) Jesus' family was a poor, peasant family from Nazareth, with an ancestral lineage in Bethlehem. There is no logical reasons for their bones to end up in a middle class tomb in Jerusalem. Furthermore, the picture of the Talpiot's tomb shows it to be ornately decorated. Only a middle class family could have paid for the carving of such elaborate tomb. Jesus' family did not have the resources to purchase the land and build an a decorated tomb.

6) The two Mary ossuaries do not mention anyone from Migdal (Magdalene), but simply Mary. This was the most common of all the ancient Jewish female name.

7) The tomb includes the names of people like Matthew, which do not match with the list of Jesus' brothers' names. In other words, the tomb includes names that should not be there and lacks the names of people who should be there.

Factual considerations such as these discredit the claims that the Talpiot tomb contains the bones of Jesus' family. All the ancient accounts confirm that Jesus' tomb was empty because He resurrected. Jewish and Roman authorities acknowledged this fact. It takes a year for the flesh to desiccate before the bones can be placed in an ossuary. Jesus' body was long gone from Joseph of Arimathea's tomb before then.

To believe that Jesus' body was placed in another tomb, dessicated, and then put in an ossuary, means to accuse James, Peter, and John of fraud and cover up. Could they have perpetrated a fraudulent religion for which they and others were prepared to die?

Prophetic Significance of The Lost Tomb of Jesus and The Da Vinci Code

We are witnessing today a concerted effort to destroy the credibility of the Christian faith, especially by attacking its Founder, Christ Himself. Hollywood has been at the forefront in launching these attacks. For example, in the movie The Last Temptation, Martin Scorzese depicts Jesus imagining Himself engaged in sexual activities.

In the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown atempts to prove that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, and they had a daughter named Sarah, whose royal bloodline survives to this very day. In The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Jacobovici and Cameron argue that the bones of Jesus' family have been found. The names inscribed in the bone boxes allegedly show that Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered their son Judah.

These sacrelegious movies are popular today because they appeal to our secular, postmodern, humanistic, new age culture which rejects moral absolutes of the Christian faith, such as the Ten Commandments, creation, final judgement and destruction of evildoers. Our postmodern culture promotes instead moral relativism, where truth is subjective, based on personal beliefs.

The moral relativism of our time that promotes a self-centered worship, has prophetic significance. It represents a clear fulfilment of Christ's prediction: "When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). The false worship promoted today by books and movies like The Lost Tomb of Jesus, must be seen as players in the prophetic endtime battle between true and false worship. God's final appeal in Revelation is to come out of the false worship promoted by spiritual Babylon: "Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues" (Rev 18:4).

Revelation portrays Satan like a monster with many tentacles, using different strategies (beasts) to win the battle over worship. Sacrilegious movies like The Last Temptation, The Da Vinci Code, and The Lost Tomb of Jesus, are one of the significant Satanic strategies. Our calling is to proclaim to the world God's final warning message: "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountain of the water" (Rev 14:7).