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The following was sent to our Diocese Office from the United States Council
of Catholic Bishops regarding the program The Lost Tomb of Jesus. When
friends, family, or co-workers discuss this story, you'll be armed with the
following information.
FROM: Bill Ryan of the USCCB
RE: The Lost Tomb of Jesus"
DATE: March 1, 2007
On Sunday, March 4, the Discovery Channel will present a program called
The Lost Tomb of Jesus. A number of claims made in the program have been the
subject of severe criticism by a wide-ranging group of scholars. The
backgrounder below attempts to juxtapose some of the assertions in the program
against known facts. We hope it is helpful. The "Claim vs. Fact" list will also
be posted on www.JesusDecoded.com, the
Web site developed by the Catholic Communications Campaign last year as a source
of public information on authentic teaching about Jesus Christ.
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
The upcoming Discovery Channel program "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" has
occasioned a number of inquiries. The claims made in the program have already
been roundly denounced by biblical scholars and archaeologists, by no means all
of them Christian. They have also been the subject of serious scrutiny in the
secular media. The following Talking Points, prepared by the Office of Media
Relations and done in a "claim vs. fact" format, are meant to address some of
the principal assertions in the program. They are largely derived from the
Catholic News Service story "Biblical
scholars reject filmmakers' claim about tomb of Jesus," which is on the
Conference Web site.
- CLAIM: The filmmakers suggest they have discovered something new, a
tomb that was the burial site of Jesus and his family.
FACT: The tomb was discovered nearly 30 years ago in Jerusalem. The
Israeli archaeologist who wrote the original excavation report on the site
calls the claim "nonsense."
"In their movie they are billing it as 'never before reported information'
but it is not new," said Amos Kloner, professor of archaeology at Bar-llan
University in Israel. "I published all the details in...1996, and I didn't say
it was the tomb of Jesus' family."
Dominican Father Jerome Murphy-O'Connor, a biblical archaeologist and
expert in the New Testament at the French Biblical and Archaeological School
in Jerusalem, who was interviewed for the film, said Kloner had written about
the findings a decade ago, and though it was all out in the public domain,
nobody had been interested. "It's a commercial ploy that all the media is
playing into," Father Murphy-O'Connor said.
- CLAIM: The filmmakers claim that by using new technology and DNA
studies they have determined that among the 10 ossuaries-burial boxes used in
biblical times to house the bones of the dead which were found in the cave in
1980-are the ossuaries of Jesus, his brothers, Mary, another Mary whom they
say is Mary Magdalene, and "Judah, son of Jesus."
FACT: The names found on the ossuaries "are a combination of very
common names," according to Fr. Murphy-O'Connor. "Fifty percent of all Jewish
women in the first century were called either Mary or Salome. It doesn't mean
much at all. You can prove anything with statistics." Fr. Murphy-O'Connor said
the DNA tests could "only prove that they are human" but "certainly did not
prove any familial connection."
- CLAIM: The filmmakers claim the ossuaries were not identified as
belonging to Jesus' family when they were first discovered because present day
knowledge and scientific tools were not available.
FACT: Jesus' family was from Galilee and had no ties to Jerusalem,
casting serious doubt that they would have had a burial cave in Jerusalem.
Kloner said the names on the ossuaries were common during that time and their
presence in the tomb was coincidental.
- CLAIM: The filmmakers say the so-called "James Ossuary," which came
to public attention several years ago and was purported by its owner, Oded
Golan, to have belonged to the brother of Jesus, was also from the tomb, and
that a forensic technique was used to determine this.
FACT: In 2003 the Israel Antiquities Authority declared the
inscription on the James ossuary a forgery. Golan is currently on trial for
forging the inscription.
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