World
New Film Claims To Reveal 'Jesus Tomb'
By Tzippe Barrow
CBN News - Jerusalem Bureau
February 26, 2007
CBNNews.com - JERUSALEM - Perhaps it's no surprise that yet another Hollywood filmmaker wants to disprove the biblical account of the life and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Unlike The DaVinci Code, this latest attempt to torpedo the foundational beliefs of Christianity is portrayed as a documentary film. (Watch a full report with Middle East Bureau Chief Chris Mitchell now as scholars and others respond to the film's claims).
James Cameron of Titanic fame has joined Israeli-born director Simcha Jacobovici to produce a film they hope will convince the public that Jesus fathered a son with Mary Magdalene and was buried in a family crypt in Jerusalem's Talpiot neighborhood.
In 1980, construction workers digging out the foundation for a building in the industrial area of Talpiot uncovered a 2,000-year-old cave, housing 10 ossuaries. Over time, archaeologists deciphered inscriptions on six of the stone caskets.
Two were inscribed with the name Mary (assumed by the filmmakers to be the mother of Jesus and Mary Magdalene), and the other four names were Jesua, son of Joseph; Matthew; Jofa (supposedly Jesus' brother) ; and Judah, son of Jesua (whom the film claims is the son of Jesus).
At a press conference scheduled for today in New York, Cameron will display three ossuaries, which he believes belong to Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdelene and Jesus himself.
An Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) spokeswoman told
Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief David Horovitz that the IAA loaned two ossuaries from the Talpiot dig for tomorrow's press conference, adding that it didn't mean the IAA endorsed the film's claims.
But Bar Ilan University Professor Amos Kloner, a former IAA archaeologist who oversaw the excavation 27 years ago and has authored detailed reports on the findings, said the IAA was "very foolish" to loan the ossuaries.
"There is no likelihood that Jesus and his relatives had a family tomb," said Kloner.
"They were a Galilee family with no ties in Jerusalem. The Talpiot tomb belonged to a middle-class family from the first century CE [Common Era]," he said.
During an interview with the film's producers, Kloner said that "Jesus, son of Joseph" inscriptions had been found on several other ossuaries in Israel, along with the other names.
"It makes a great story for a TV film," said Kloner, "but it's impossible. It's nonsense."
The 90-minute documentary is slated for viewing on Israel's Channel 8, Britain's Channel 4, the Discovery Channel, and Canadian television.
Source: The Jerusalem Post
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