I confess I’ve been a little unnerved by director James Cameron’s Titanic announcement that he’s found Jesus–I wasn’t aware that Jesus was missing.
Cameron’s latest project, a TV documentary called The Lost Tomb of Jesus will supposedly unveil evidence that could rock the foundation of Christianity. Namely that the bodies of Jesus Christ and his family were discovered in an excavation 27 years ago, and guess what? Jesus had a son.
Let’s assume for a moment that evidence that Cameron plans to present this coming Saturday is conclusive. Suppose that there was no doubt whatsoever that the bones in the box belonged to Jesus of Nazareth. This news would cut loose the moorings of any thoughtful Christian. Personally it would force me to rethink everything I believe, and everything that I am doing with my life.
So I’ve been noodling on this a bit and here are some thoughts, tossed out in no particular order:
- The bones, assuming that they belong to Jesus, don’t necessarily disprove the resurrection, but they would make fine hash of the ascension.
- The statistical evidence supporting the claim that this is the family tomb of Jesus Christ, sounds compelling at first, but maybe isn’t as strong as it seems. (Assuming that the statistics are valid.) For instance given the presumed popularity of the names Jesus and Joseph during this timeframe, the odds are 190:1 that an ossuary would bear the inscription “Jesus, son of Joseph.” Yet there are at least two “Jesus son of Joseph” ossuaries that have been discovered to date.
- And the odds against the cluster of names in the Talpiot tomb are supposed to be 600:1. That sounds pretty strong, but it also seems pretty abstract. Does it mean that you would have to search through 600 Jerusalems in order to find one tomb with this combination of names?
- Of course there’s also the possibility that the Big Kahuna ossuary doesn’t even have an inscription for Jesus. One scholar believes it reads “Hanun son of Joseph.” Looking at the Discovery Channel’s downloadable PDF document, it is clear that “Jesus” is a matter of interpretation–confirmed largely because another ossuary clearly reads “Judah, son of Jesus.”
- It strikes me as odd, or unexpected at least, that an ossuary supposedly containing Jesus of Nazareth would be so plain with the inscription so clumsily scratched on the side. I’d love to hear an archeologist’s take on that. I’d also like to hear why Mariemne and Judah have much more ornate bone boxes.
- The Cameron film will supposedly also make the claim that the James ossuary came from the Talpiot tomb. However, there is some interesting controversy over the James ossuary, particularly the part that reads “brother of Jesus.” Ogden Golan claims to have obtained the James ossuary in 1978–two years before the Talpiot tomb was discovered. Golan claims to have photographs dated 1976 showing the James ossuary with the full inscription. This would enhance the credibility of the inscription, but lessen the likelihood that the Talpiot tomb is Jesus of Nazareth’s family plot.