New Jesus Documentary Criticized
“The Lost Tomb of Christ,” which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 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, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
One of the caskets even bears the title, “Judah, son of Jesus,” hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
Cameron told NBC’S “Today” show that statisticians found “in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them.” Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said the implications “are huge.”
I like the quote from another story on this:
Local residents said they were pleased with the attention the tomb has drawn.
“It will mean our house prices will go up because Christians will want to live here,” one woman said.
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Here’s the original story posted yesterday:
Brace yourself. James Cameron, the man who brought you ‘The Titanic’ is back with another blockbuster. This time, the ship he’s sinking is Christianity.
In a new documentary, Producer Cameron and his director, Simcha Jacobovici, make the starting claim that Jesus wasn’t resurrected –the cornerstone of Christian faith– and that his burial cave was discovered near Jerusalem. And, get this, Jesus sired a son with Mary Magdelene.
No, it’s not a re-make of “The Da Vinci Codes’. It’s supposed to be true.
Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene.
Note:
God posts get even more comments than gun posts.
Truthfully, I think we can only blame the Jews insofar as they did not patent their religion to prevent others from co-opting their intellectual property and revising it without permission. That might have solved a lot of problems.
I think the “Big Three” (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) should find common ground, and build from there. Surely they can all unite behind the idea that Tom Cruise and Scientology are just freakin’ insane! That can be a starting point for the bonding. I still see the potential for a group hug 😉
It’s not Jesus, if you don’t have faith look at the odds. We’d sooner be hit by a meteor.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”
#66
What documentary evidence? There are no contemporaneous written accounts of Jesus’ life. Paul says nothing about Jesus’ life at all other than the crucification and resurrection. But since the theme of a heavenly being dying and going up to one of the heavens is pretty common back then, this is probably what Paul was talking about.. His one, and I mean one, mention about the Jews killing Jesus is disputed and probably added later.
Bones or no bones, I think that if a body was in a poorly made coffin for 2000 years that the bones surely would be turned into dust by now. I could be wrong I am no archaeologist. But here is another theory, maybe if Jesus was as popular as he is portrayed the grave was robbed thousands of years ago and the bones were stolen!
Every year I get mileage out of this joke. This year it will have more punch!
“Did you know Easter was canceled?”
“Yep, they found the body.”
LOL @ religion
i know there was a big controversy over who was going to get the body and by the time the judge ruled on who was going to get the body the remains had already decayed……..lol
Hopefully now all the televangelists will commit suicide.
“But since the theme of a heavenly being dying and going up to one of the heavens is pretty common back then …”
Really? Name ten. Actually, Jesus, in the capacity
of godhead, is the only “god” I’ve ever come across
dying. Generally speaking, gods don’t die. Heroes
die.
I trust James cameron to be a great discoverer but he is really capable of discovering boobs and nipples of kate winslet lying naked on bed rather that discovering any tomb or any stupid DNA tests.
For any DNA tests, the first thing that would substantiate as evidence would be to have somebody alive as descendent of camron’s so called dead jesus. Then this would help to compare this descendants sample with the stupid remains they discovered. When this is not the scenario, how the hell they think they can make any sensible people to believe their claim. they are only trying to influence people by using all scientific jargons to make it sound more genuine.
The second question is, there is another guy from australia calling himself james cameron and says he is the one who filmed the documentary, is this stupid ‘titanic’ fame cameron going to share his all his profit from this documentary with the other guy….in otherwords, are there only one name that was/is in use in the whole world.
Shame on you CAMERON you better build your own tomb!
They found Jesus but can’t find Jimmy Hoffa or Waldo!!! Sheeeet!!!!!!
This was in my local paper today. it said some interesting things..
1. this thing was discovered in the 80s – so why the hype now?
2. Jesus, Joseph, and Judah were common names back then, so it could be anyone
3. There is another ‘coffin’ already touring museums with a similar inscription “Jesus, son of Joseph”
4. the statistical probability of this being the same Jesus, without regard for resurrection, is 600 to 1
You critics talk about peoples faith as a mental illness, but in light of the facts, I think your hope is just as deluded as you say of theirs.
Online Etymology Dictionary
Barabbas
biblical masc. proper name, Gk., from Aramaic barabba, “son of the father,” or “son of the master.” In Heb., it would be ben abh.
Also Christ is not a Sir-Name it is a title.
So It Is NOT The Grave of Christ. It’s just Jesus an kin Bones.
Think they’ll try and get a clone out of them?
I’m far from sold on the likelihood of this documentary having much credibility. But Christians are really outdoing themselves with all the attacks on its claims before they even know what they are! “How could Cameron have samples of Jesus’ DNA?” Well, he’s not claiming to.
“He’s claiming the resurrection is a lie!”
Really? Where? Physical remains are in no way incompatible with physical resurrection. They pose a problem for physical assumption into heaven, however.
#82 its just an extension of implications, people do it all the time
If they clone Jesus, won’t that be considered the SECOND COMING!? Don’t do it, fools! You’ll bring about the end of days! Just kidding, LOL @ Religion.
I’ve had one question since I was 7 years old: With so many different religions out there, how do you know which one is the right one? The only answer that made any sense was: Whatever religion gives you the most benefit. Another answer I came up with over time was: Whatever religion your parents forced (read brainwashed) on you. The best example I can only hope the world could understand (hard to do since most people want to stay ignorant for some reason) is the “Cosmic Teapot” idea. If everyone was raised from birth to believe that there is a very small teapot orbiting the earth and went to a “church” every few days and was told over and over their entire life about the teapot they would all believe in it and no one could tell them otherwise. Anyone who told them it didn’t exist would be looked at as crazy. The one book I wish everyone in the world would read is “The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins. It’s too bad the people who really need to read it probably can’t because the words are too big (read most religious people are stupid)! The real answer to the question, with all the different religions out there how do you know which is the right one, is: you don’t. Religion is dangerous and we need to get past it and figure out how to all work together as a single species and figure out how to keep our planet from being used up or destroyed.
#84 “and figure out how to all work together as a single species and figure out how to keep our planet from being used up or destroyed.”
… then *that* would be our religion.
also, just because people can be indoctrinated to believe something false, doesn’t mean that every doctrine is false.
I wonder if anyone bothered to say anything controversial about another religion. Oh yeah! Salmund Ryushdi (spelling?). He said some pretty bad stuff about Mohammad and has had a price on his head since the 80s. Whether true or false, I don’t think Cameron’s gonna get a price on his head even though it’s rather trendy to pick on Christians but no other religion.
#86
Mithras; Attis; Ishtar; Dionysus;
Not ten, but not zero either. I meant in any case that there are thematic precursors to Jesus in the pagan mystery religions.
But the Jesus story is obviously Jewish, and has precursors in apocalyptic and messianic literature that came before (Daniel, Wisdom, Odes of Solomon, Didache–the latter two are disputed and many scholars do believe they were written later, but there is reasonable belief they were written earlier then the Gospels.) Christians assume that whenever the Gospels match OT scripture, then it must be “prophesy,” but it is just as easy to imagine that the Gospel stories were written to match the OT. Until I see some clear reference to the stories in the Gospels in some other work, then I will be skeptical. The trouble is that almost all of Mark has connections with the OT. Luke and Matthew use most of that, and then add their own prophesy fulfilling birth narratives. Besides the lack of any historical corroboration of the murder of the babies, the star, the visit of wise men to Herod’s court, how in the world would the gospel writers know all of this? I know; it fit prophesy. Maybe Mary kept a diary.
It is still important that Paul says nothing about the “living” Jesus’ life. Paul does not quote him or talk about his ministry, family, etc.
@gquaglia I tootally agree with you, now i just need to find the movie on p2p… And everywhere i looked with google, it says “James Cameron finds grave of Jesus & Son” or something like that, so everybody thinks HE found it LOL!
Here`s a link, where you can find all the good lies about that:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=nation_world&id=5069377
im right here!
#87Professor Shlomo Pines found a different version of Josephus testimony in an Arabic version of the tenth century. It has obviously not been interpolated in the same way as the Christian version circulating in the West:
At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive. Accordingly they believed that he was the Messiah, concerning whom the Prophets have recounted wonders.
There you have it, an account of Jesus from an Orthodox Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus.
And as for Paul, he never knew Jesus during His earthly ministry, so he would know little about His life but…….
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11:24
“And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.”
This was written decades before the earliest Gospel account of the same incident.
Religion is dangerous, there’s no doubt about that, in fact to make a religion out of Jesus Christ is extremely dangerous, because if we look at his life as folklore, or a great story, or simply not look at his life at all and go about our lives unwilling to believe in him because we’re not “the religious type” is the most dangerous thing a person can do. I only ask each one of you that doubts the Christian belief of Jesus Christ to read any one of the gospels, even just a chapter. Go in with eyes open, and you will never be the same. Religion has never been the answer, it is only living out a duty to something you don’t quite understand and have no heart for. Jesus Christ is the only answer. Remember that there are as many perceptions of the truth as there are people, but there is still only one truth.
90
That is not the original quote from Josephus. The original quote was
“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be
lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful
works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with
pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and
many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when
Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst
us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him
at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them
alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had
foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things
concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named
from him, are not extinct at this day.”
Josephus, who was not a Christian, and did not like Messianic cults, clearly did not write this. What you quote is a “guess” of what he might have written before some later Christian updated it. But there is no reason to think that what you quote is the original. It is more likely that the whole passage was added. Josephus includes an extended table of contents, and in it does not mention Jesus. (Josephus also writes about John the Baptist, and does mention John in his extended table of contents.) Also, Christian writers who commented on this work by Josephus do not mention the Jesus passage until the fourth century (but do comment on the John the Baptist passage.)
I do not deny Paul talked about the crucifixion. It was an apocalyptic, messianic cult, and the theme of a suffering servant permeates Jewish apocalyptic literature. That the cult originators might choose the common Roman method of executions to enhance their ritualistic stories is not that strange. There is just not any compelling evidence that Paul thought Jesus really walked the earth in the way depicted in the Gospels. When he visited Peter in Jerusalem, and then wrote back to his church, he almost certainly would have made this clear: “Look, I, Paul, who only saw Jesus in a vision, got to talk with His best friend, one who walked hand in hand with our Lord. Not only that, but Peter was one who got to see Jesus in the flesh after he rose. I also talked to Mary his mother, to see if she was alright, and visited the empty tomb, and his place of ascension, etc, etc,…” He says none of this other than the Lord appeared to Peter, than some others, and then to him [Paul].
The Da Vinci code actually said it all. What matters is what each of us believes. Man or Deity, Jesus had a lot of power over the people of the time, but then again, so did Hitler …. the debate goes on…
It does matter what we believe.
Many followers of Islam believe the Koran is the perfect holy word of God along with the many, many, passages about the value and goodness of being a martyr. Do these beliefs matter?
Many Christians believe that Jesus will come back within their life times to judge the world. They believe this will be heralded by war in the middle east. Do these beliefs matter?
Hello. Great job. I did not anticipate this. This is a splendid story. Thanks!