What You Should Know about "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" (Part 1)
March 1, 2007
Professor Amos Kloner is a soft-spoken, amiable and gracious gentleman who just a few days ago, suddenly found himself at the center of a world wide controversy.
Kloner, a professor at Bar-Ilan University has been interviewed by dozens of news organizations and has been quoted in articles around the world concerning the soon to be released documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus" by the Discovery Channel.
Few people on earth know more about the issues surrounding this documentary than Kloner. In 1980, Kloner served as the district archeologist for the Jerusalem municipality. When contractors uncovered a tomb while digging the foundations for an apartment building in East Talpiyot, they called the authorities and Kloner was the man in charge of inspecting the exposed tomb.
By Israeli law, when contractors uncover any sort of ancient artifacts, they have to stop and immediately the area goes from a construction site to an archeological site.
Kloner oversaw the examination of the cave and the ten ossuaries found in it. He presented his research on this cave and the ossuaries in a 1996 article in the archeological publication called "Atiquot." Based on his research, he strongly disagrees with the conclusions - or suggestions - presented in the Discovery Channel's film.
When CBN News interviewed Kloner, he also provided some behind the scenes observations that are very revealing. These are things you might want to know when you talk to family, friends or acquaintances about this latest "revelation" that seems to strike at the foundations of the Christian faith. By the way, this film is the second documentary done on this tomb. The BBC did one in 1996 on the same tomb.
Kloner himself is Jewish and he's not out to defend the Christian faith per se. Right now, he's interested in standing up for good science, valid research and archeology done according to professional standards.
This is the first of a two part installment with Professor Kloner. He does have a noticeable accent and English is not his primary language, but what he says is extremely helpful in understanding the upcoming documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus."
Transcript of CBN News Interview with Professor Amos Kloner:
"These are the most common names among Jews in the Second Temple period we are talking about. In the last two hundred years of the Second Temple period we have all these names very common among the masculine and feminine names in Jerusalem."
"I did not relate the findings from these ten ossuaries, the names, from these six names to the family of Jesus because I believe that it's a regular middle class family, maybe upper class Jewish family of the end of the first, mainly beginning of the first common era."
"So in any case, it doesn't fit the idea because I'm talking about 70 years or 80 years and according to the historical sources it could be only 30 years, 35 years."
"What is the status of the tomb right now? The status of the tomb right now, it's filled with Jewish scriptures. What's called 'gniza', keeping it hidden, translation from Hebrew. In East Talpiyot neighborhood and it's not negotiable, you can't enter there. By the way, when it was originally excavated in 1980, there was nothing there except 'bulldozering' and the very beginning of construction activities. In the documentary, people are telling the crew that they have notified the authorities and things like that. It's not the evidence that I know."
"I don't accept the idea that this system was the burial place of the family of Jesus. It was again a quite middle class or upper class Jewish family of the first century Common Era. That's my conclusion."
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