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Give
me a break!
PRAISED BE JESUS
CHRIST!
(Now and Forever)
I’m ticked. The mockery of “The Da Vinci Code” was bad enough. It was
followed by the tomb of James, the gnostic Gospel of Judas and now, the
family tomb of Jesus. Throw in “The Jesus Papers,” which claimed Jesus
survived the crucifixion, and the “Jesus Dynasty,” which suggests that
the life goal of Jesus was to establish an earthly kingdom, and I want
to shout “Enough!” Of course, it will not end. Money beckons. If it
isn’t money, it’s a compulsion to turn oneself into a household name,
regardless of who or what you defame.
My agitation is rooted not so much in the fact that these fantasies are
nonsense, but in the realization that people are taken in by them.
Unfortunately, media hype is more persuasive to some than the faith that
comes to us from the apostles.
For those lucky enough not to have paid any attention to “The Lost Tomb
of Jesus,” some 27 years ago Israeli construction workers were gouging
out foundations for a building in a suburb of Jerusalem. The earth gave
way, revealing a 2,000-year-old cave with 10 stone caskets.
Archeologists were summoned, and the stone caskets were carted away for
examination. The names on the tombs were: Jesua, son of Joseph; Mary;
Mary; Matthew; Jofa; and Judah, son of Jesua.
Amos Kloner, the Israeli archeologist who wrote the original excavation
report, doesn’t associate the crypt with the New Testament Jesus. He has
noted that the father of Jesus was a humble carpenter who couldn’t
afford a luxury crypt for his family. And, all were common Jewish names.
Also, in the old city of Jerusalem, Christians for centuries had been
worshipping the empty tomb of Christ at the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher.
Cometh now James Cameron (his claim to fame is the movie “Titanic”) and
Simcha Jacobovici, his director, with the claim that they “may” have
found the burial site of Jesus and his family. A lot of “ifs” and
“maybes” are used in all this; the bottom line is that the resurrection
never took place, which would in turn nullify Christianity. St. Paul
writes: “If Christ was not raised, your faith is worthless” (1 Cor.
15:16). According to Cameron and Jacobovici, Jesus sired a son with Mary
Magdalene and the Jesus family was entombed in the Amos Kloner site.
Here is a point-by-point critique prepared by the Office of Media
Relations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It
addresses some of the principal assertions put forth by Cameron and
Jacobovici. It should come as no surprise that the bottom line is that
biblical scholars reject the filmmakers’ claim about the tomb of Jesus.
Point one: The filmmakers suggest that they have discovered something
new, a tomb that was the burial site of Jesus and his family. The fact
is the tomb was discovered nearly 30 years ago. Amos Kloner, the Israeli
archeologist who wrote the original excavation reports on the site,
calls the claim that it is the Jesus family tomb “nonsense.” Kloner, now
a professor of archeology at Bar-llan University in Israel, is quoted as
saying: “In their movie they are billing it as never-before-reported
information, but it is not new. I published all the details in 1996, and
I didn’t say it was the tomb of Jesus’ family.”
Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, a biblical archeologist and expert in the
New Testament at the French Biblical and Archeological School in
Jerusalem, says the film is a commercial ploy that all the media are
playing into.
Point two: The filmmakers claim that by using new technology and DNA
studies they have determined that among the 10 burial boxes (ossuaries)
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.”
Jewish tradition called for people to be buried in a shroud for one year
before having their remains transferred into an ossuary.
The fact is the names found on the ossuaries “are a combination of very
common names.” According to Father Murphy-O’Connor, 50 percent of all
Jewish women in the first century were called either Mary or Salome.
Father Murphy-O’Connor adds that DNA tests could “only prove that they
are human remains,” but “certainly did not prove any familial
connection.”
Point three: The filmmakers claim the ossuaries were not identified as
belonging to Jesus’ family when they were first discovered because
present-day knowledge and scientific rules were not available. The fact
is that Jesus’ family was from Galilee and had no ties to Jerusalem.
Amos Kloner, the archeology professor, has said the names on the burial
boxes were common during that time and their presence in the tomb was
coincidental. The tomb, he has pointed out, belonged to a middle- or
upper-middle class Jewish family during the first century and the cave
was in use for 70 to 100 years by that family.
Point four: The filmmakers say the so-called James Ossuary, which came
to public attention several years ago and was reported by its owner to
have belonged to the brother of Jesus, was also from the tomb, and that
a forensic technique was used to determine this. In fact, in 2003 the
Israel Antiquities Authority declared the inscription on the James
Ossuary a forgery. Odon Golen, the owner of the James Ossuary, is
currently on trial for forging the inscription. Cameron’s
self-proclaimed experts apparently have learned nothing from the James
Ossuary incident.
Of the 10 ossuaries recovered from the cave, one of the Mary ossuaries
has been on display for many years at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. The
Judah ossuary is on display in Fort Lauderdale. Two are currently on
loan to the filmmakers. The other six are in a warehouse maintained by
the Israel Antiquities Authority outside Jerusalem.
The auxiliary bishop of Jerusalem has underlined the obvious. This
latest “shocking news” which would disprove the resurrection, thereby
turning Christianity into a hoax, ignores hundreds of years of
scholarship and the plethora of archeological materials that continue to
emerge in the Holy Land. They ignore what Jewish scholars say about the
names contained on the ossuaries, as well as the archeological value of
oral tradition in determining historical site locations, such as the
tomb of Jesus that has always been recognized by the Church.
If you choose to believe in this latest mockery of our faith, you may
want to travel to Aomori, Japan. Folks there can top Cameron and
Jacobovici. They claim that 2,000 years ago, after Jesus died on the
cross and was resurrected, he came to live in their village. He lived
out the rest of his life there, worked and cared for the sick and poor.
He married a Japanese woman with whom he had three children and finally
died at the age of 111. He is said to be buried in Aomori.
The factual tomb of Jesus is located in Jerusalem’s old city in the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It is an ancient church built in the
fourth century by the Roman Emperor Constantine after his mother,
Helena, identified the location based on local traditions maintained by
Christians since the time of Christ’s death and resurrection. No bones,
no wife, no children.
We believe, and we know from the testimony of the ancients, that Jesus
came into the world to save the world from the power of sin and death.
We profess that he suffered and died and rose from the dead so that sins
might be forgiven.
In spite of the hype over the Jesus family tomb claims made by Cameron
and Jacobovici, the parishes of this Local Church will be celebrating
the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter. Our celebration will not
be based on “ifs” or “maybes.” |
