The Lost Tomb of Jesus

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The Lost Tomb of Jesus

• A believers response

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The dangers of Christian reactionism

• It is unwise to react to everything in culture
  that appears to be a threat to Christianity
• Unthoughtful, reactionary responses are usually
  not honoring to God
• However, certain cultural events both warrant
  careful, wise biblical responses from Christians
  and provide believers with opportunities for
  conversations with unbelievers

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What is The Lost Tomb of Jesus?

• It is a Discovery Channel TV documentary, in
  which the producers claim to have found Jesus
  family tomb, including his ossuary containing his
  bones.

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4 Questions

• What did archeologists actually find?
• What conclusions does the show make?
• Are those conclusions correct?
• How should a Christian respond?

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What did archeologists actually find?

• Background
• In March, 1980, on Dov Gruner Street in the
  Jersualem neighborhood of East Talpiyot, the
  entrance to a burial cave was discovered by a
  construction crew.
• Yosef Gat of the Department of Antiquities and
  Museums lead a salvage excavation, along with
  Shimon Gibson, who published the first drawings
  of the tomb.
• The excavation lead to the discovery of ten
  ossuaries (bone boxes), six of which had
  inscriptions on them. There were also bone
  fragments and bone dust found on the floor of the
  tomb. The bones catalogued, and were then
  reburied.                                         
                

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What did archeologists actually find?

• Background
• L.Y. Rahmani published information on the
  ossuaries and their inscriptions, along with
  hundreds more in 1994.
• In 1996, Amos Kloner published an article on this
  particular tomb in the Israel Antiquities
  Association publication, Atiquot.                
                                            

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What did archeologists actually find?

• The six ossuaries

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1.1 ft
0.8 ft
1.78 ft
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Ossuary 1
Mariamenou e mara of Mariamene,who is (also
called) Mara
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Ossuary 2
Yehuda bar Yeshua Judah son of Jesus
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Ossuary 3
Matia Matthew
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Ossuary 4
Yeshua? bar Yehosef Jesus? son of Joseph
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Ossuary 5
Yose Jose short for Joseph
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Ossuary 6
Mariah Mary
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What conclusions does the show make?

• This is a family tomb, and specifically the
  family tomb of Jesus Christ
• The names are interpreted as follows
• Jesus, son of Joseph is Jesus Christ
• Mary is Mary, Jesus mother
• Matthew is an unknown relative of Jesus
• Joseph is Jesus brother, Joseph
• Judah, son of Jesus is Jesus son, Judah
• Mariamenou e Mara is Mary Magdalene, Jesus
  wife

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What conclusions does the show make?

• The producers claim these conclusions on the
  basis of archeological, forensic (DNA), and
  statistical evidence
• They specifically claim a 6001 probability that
  this is Jesus tomb

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Are the conclusions correct?

• The inscription Jesus is uncertain and the
  identification of Mariamenou e Mara as Mary
  Magdalene is extremely unlikely according to
  experts.
• Acts of Phillip is unreliable gnostic literature,
  and it doesnt appear to link Mariamene to Mary
  Magdalene, but instead to Mary of Bethany
• Mara is written in Greek, not Aramaic, therefore
  it is to be taken as the name Martha, not an
  Aramaic word for Lord
• The question of why this one ossuary is written
  in Greek and not Aramaic/Hebrew as the others has
  not been considered
• The relationship of the occupants with one
  another is total speculation. There is no way to
  tell if they were related at all, let alone how
  they were related.

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Are the conclusions correct?

• The producers were only able to get mitochondrial
  DNA samples from two of the ossuaries (Mariamenou
  e Mara and Jesus, son of Joseph)
• All that the DNA evidence showed was that the
  occupants of these two ossuaries were not related
  maternally.
• Furthermore, the original archeologist stated
  that each ossuary averaged 1.7 occupants per
  ossuary, further complicating the entire DNA
  hypothesis

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Are the conclusions correct?

• The view that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene
  has already been refuted by scholars. The entire
  tomb hypothesis falls apart if Jesus and Mary
  were not married.
• This tomb was discovered in 1980 and scholars
  have known about it since then. This tomb is no
  big deal because the names that were found were
  some of the most common names in the first
  century Palestine.
• Joseph second most common male name
• Mary the most common female name
• Judah the third most common male name
• Jesus the sixth most common male name

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Are the conclusions correct?

• Specifically, the name Jesus has been found on
  22 different ossuaries, with several (at least
  two, perhaps as many as six) of the inscription
  Jesus, son of Joseph.
• The statistical analysis is filled with multiple
  problems, mostly involving unverifiable
  assumptions and even some flat out mistakes (such
  as the number of total occupants in the tomb)

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Are the conclusions correct?

• Jesus was from Nazareth, not Jerusalem thus if
  he had a family burial spot it would not have
  been in Jerusalem
• Neither Jesus nor his followers ever referred to
  Jesus as the son of Joseph.
• The vast majority of archeologists (Jewish,
  Christian, and secular) have completely dismissed
  this documentary as impossible, a publicity
  stunt, and nonsense.

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How should a Christian respond?

• Any attack on the person and work of Jesus
  Christ, particularly on His resurrection, is to
  be taken very seriously and warrants a wise
  response from believers (1 Cor. 15, Gal. 1, 2
  Cor. 11)
• A Christians response in this case should
  particularly focus on the worldview of the
  producers, particularly their view of theology,
  faith, and truth.
• This story is not ultimately about who is right
  based on evidence and empirical research, it is
  really about who has ultimate authority and who
  determines truth.

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How should a Christian respond?

• Video clip 1
• What is faith?
• Biblical definition Faith is a confident trust
  in God and His Word.
• Biblical view of truth/knowledge versus Worldly
  view of truth/knowledge
• Where does the Bible fit into a worldly view of
  knowledge/truth?

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How should a Christian respond?

• Video clip 2 -
• Doesnt deal with theological matters?
• Two story view of Truth
• The assumption of neutrality

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How should a Christian respond?

• Biblical view of truth
• All truth comes from God (John 146)
• The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
  knowledge (Prov. 17)
• Instead of starting with a biblical worldview and
  Scripture as ones starting point, todays
  worldview sees man a neutral bystander, who
  through empirical research and the scientific
  method, determines for himself what is true

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How should a Christian respond?

• This worldview
• Dethrones God as the authority and determiner of
  truth and replaces it with man
• Dethrones the Scriptures as Gods authoritative
  revelation of God-breathed truth and replaces it
  with man
• Begins the journey of discovering truth with
  mans own thinking and reasoning ability, which
  assumes certain biblical presuppositions about
  man
• Assumes mans neutrality and impartiality,
  ignoring the noetic effect of sin on ones
  thinking and motives
• At best, makes Scripture fit in to whatever
  conclusions are made, or otherwise ignores or
  discredits Scripture altogether
• Does not pursue the praise and glory of God as
  the goal of the pursuit of knowledge and truth

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How should a Christian respond?

• Any attack on the person and work of Christ
  ultimately becomes an attack on Scripture, since
  Scripture is the final and inerrant authority
  which reveals and testifies of Christ
• Theological anchors
• The Bible really is Gods inerrant, God-breathed,
  authoritative revelation (2 Tim. 316-17)
• Jesus Christ really did come back to life
  physically and later ascended to heaven
  physically (John 2027, Luke 2451, Acts 19, 1
  Cor. 156)

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How should a Christian respond?

• All right thinking about anything starts with
• A submission to God and His Word
• A commit to worship and glorify God through a
  relationship to Jesus Christ
• Starting with a biblical worldview and biblical
  principles
• Carefully pursuing knowledge based on these
  presuppositions and principles

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How should a Christian respond?

• When talking with people
• Dont discuss this from the cultures worldview,
  bring a biblical worldview into the conversation
• Ask questions which will bring a persons
  worldview to the surface
• Graciously show how the Bible reveals a different
  worldview
• Use the Bible to show that Jesus both rose from
  the dead and ascended into heaven physically,
  therefore the question, Is this Jesus tomb and
  bones? is irrelevant