you just described well over 1/2 of Christianity. the Bible is an ancient narrative. it tells a story. there's a beginning and an end...but it's disjointed. i read Job, for example...do I need that to be literal to be true? absolutely not. Job could be an example...like a parable...and not be a real guy who actually existed. the Gospels, on the other hand, have to be given heavier scrutiny, though, i believe. because they don't pretend to be stories...they purport to be accounts of actual events. but i don't know why this "finding"...even it were all absolutely true...would so drastically alter all that. as i understand it, they didn't actually find bones in this box. that's why the guy who pretends to be an archaelogist on the Discovery Channel keeps saying, "why couldn't he have risen from this tomb?" everybody does get to make up their own mind as to what is true and what isn't. denominations have literally gone to war over these differences. ridiculous and sad..but it's true.
Free will, it is what was promised, right? So, we all have to make up our own minds as to what is and isn't true anyway. The only thing this discovery can do if proven, is cast some serious doubt on the resurrection, but that can be explained away as Jesus appeared as a ghost or aperation instead of in the flesh. I don't think it really changes anything, but it is cool. DD
The original article mentions "human remains" with which they got DNA from. So while they may no longer be bones but there is some remains of a physical body. Anyway I agree with your main point regarding belief. It seems like a very shallow belief if someone's belief in Jesus is shaken by this finding.
The Bible is a guide ... and a mystery. The mystery of God is solved at death, and I'd personally like to get in a few more chapters before I'm ready to solve the puzzle.
Lawrence E. Stager, the Dorot professor of archaeology of Israel at Harvard, referred to it as "exploiting the whole trend that caught on with The Da Vinci Code. One of the problems is there are so many biblically illiterate people around the world that they don’t know what is real judicious assessment and what is what some of us in the field call ‘fantastic archaeology.’ ”[2]] Amos Kloner, former Jerusalem district archaeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority, examined the tomb in 1980 and said that the inscription on the ossuary is not clear enough to ascertain, and said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television. Quote: “The new evidence is not serious, and I do not accept that it is connected to the family of Jesus....[3]They just want to get money for it." [4] Ben Witherington, a Bible scholar at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, says, “Of course, we want to know more about Jesus, but please don’t insult our intelligence by giving us this sort of stuff."[5] David Mavorah, a curator of the Israel museum in Jerusalem, points out that the names on the ossuaries were extremely common. "We know that Joseph, Jesus and Mariamene were all among the most common names of the period. To start with all these names being together in a single tomb and leap from there to say this is the tomb of Jesus is a little far-fetched, to put it politely."[6] Professor Kloner, in the same vein, told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the name Jesus had been found 71 times in burial caves at around that time D&D Rocks!... link
Except for the fact that the denials are coming from scholars who don't seem to have anything to gain by questioning such claims.
Archeologists, bible scholars, historians, and lay people should all be skeptical. That is the correct perspective when evaluating any new find/theory etc. in any field. However, if a literal belief in the bible is the source of the skepticism, it has no place in a scientific/historical debate.
I dont know the faiths of those scholars, but I think their skepticism comes from scientific skepticism, not on anything from the Bible.
Amos Kloner...examined the tomb in 1980 and said that the inscription on the ossuary is not clear enough to ascertain ______ So our forensic capabilities haven't improved in 27 years?
the "human remains" were just from scraping the sides of the coffins. but, as the "archaeologist" said..."why couldn't he have risen from THIS tomb?"
Pretty interesting this is coming out during lent and with Easter coming up...I am interested to hear the arguments, and will hold judgement until then... Could it be possible, well, I guess anything is, but definitely something I'll be watching...
There are similar issues with each of those quotes- Stager- If you go to the NYT article that is the source of that quote, the next line is that he hasn't seen the documentary yet. Witherington- This guy doesn't explain why the claims made are an insult to intelligence. This would seem to be rather important. Mavorah- He misstates the case being made (as I understand it). No one is "leaping" to the conclusion that this was Jesus' tomb because there are caskets with the name Jesus and other common names Hebrew names that are also biblical. A statistical analysis was conducted that computes a likelihood that you would find all of the names found, in the same tomb. When someone builds a strawman like this to knock down, I start hearing warning bells. To me, what is more intriguing, is the inscriptions that define the relationships on the caskets. That makes this find a lot more interesting, to my way of thinking. All of this said, I haven't seen anything that "proves" this was Jesus' family tomb. I have seen enough to think that this evidence deserves further study and analysis, and should not be summarily dismissed, as some seem eager to do.
yeah...that's what my wife said. she said.."wait..we have these things for 27 years...and then right before Easter we release all this information of how we've actually found Jesus' tomb??" i'm with gifford-- i'll watch the documentary and am interested in learning more about it.
It is interesting that it took that long, but sometimes things happen like that. The bottom line is that we will all be watching, which is what they want anyway. DD
