Lost Tomb of Somebody

Remember "The Lost Tomb of Jesus"?

You can forget it now. Even some of the pro-Jesus documentarians featured in the show are backpedalling away from it.

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Last week, I promised I'd watch this documentary about the "lost tomb of Jesus" because it was being advertised here on Pharyngula. Promise fulfilled, but the ghastly program was two hours long—two hours of nothing but fluff. I've put a bit of a summary of the whole show below the fold, but I'm…
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Last week's Discovery Channel documentary on Jesus' family tomb represents a leading example of how science, journalism, and theology often arrive at different answers based on competing assumptions, incentives, and imperatives. Disregard for the moment how this important debate was immediately…
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Maybe it's the secret tomb of Dionysus, he supposedly was resurrected, so he would have a secret tomb as well.

Or Appolonius of Tyana,

or maybe Hermes Trimegistus.

Hmmmmmmm, so many saviours, so few secret tombs.

By justathought (not verified) on 12 Apr 2007 #permalink

If in fact this goes away, it will serve as a good example of how extraordinary claims need to be challenged early before they get irrevocably embedded in the pseudo-sphere and develop an army of staunch advocates. By contract, I'm not holding my breath that a similar rational denunciation will occur for the shroud of Turin.

who intelligent would actually heed this silly info on the supposed tomb? lol

Just great! Next thing you know they'll be telling us the alien autopsy was fake.

Only the rich had tombs. Wasn't Jesus supposed to be poor? Maybe Joseph made a mint making crosses for the Romans and felt bad for letting his son become a dropout beatnik, and the entombment assuaged his guilt some.

I always wondered, did Joseph understand the boy wasn't his? And, since Jesus was born before Mary's marriage was consumated, then the boy was a bastard, right?

Frankly, I feel sorry for Joseph. He got cuckolded.

I can see it now...

"Ha! It wasn't Jesus' tomb after all! Those pesky scientists with their damned numbers were wrong! HE REALLY DID RISE FROM THE DEAD!"

Which is to say I'm a bit pessimistic at the moment. But otherwise, great news!

What gets me is that, as with the Da Vinci Code, people hyperventilated: "The cynical atheists were trying to disprooove the Resurrection, and now they're wrong!" No, no, no. The Da Vinci Code is a crap novel and this "Lost Tomb" business is crackpot archaeology. And that's true whether one believes in the Resurrection or not (which I don't). I'm not interested in "disproving" the Resurrection any more than I feel a need to "disprove" Osiris's resurrection.

What I'm more interested in is the so-called archaeologist who claimed several years ago that the snakes in Alexandria told her where the tomb of Alexander the Great was buried beneath the city. Haven't heard from her lately. ;-)

Anyone catch PBS's "Secrets of the Dead" about the shroud of Turin? It's like a commercial for catholicism. They only talk to true believers and crackpots. No mention of McCrone's pigment findings at all.

A friend and I were watching that yesterday. For a minute I thought we were watching TBN, but then I realized it was KLRU.
How disappointing.

I liked the story when it came out. Please unnerstan' that the "tomb" wasn't found; it was an ossuary. The difference has become a bit vague amongst the public.
I have been verbally assaulted only once, here in Austin TX,by an "evangelical" since the story got play. My quick reply was multi-levelled: "If Yeshua supposedly "ascended" and now they have found his "tomb" isn't that a bit of a conflict?"
I watched a face-morph to 'vengeful'. After a very few "inerrant" quotations I added, "They've got his DNA." Confusion. There are severall strings on this cat indeed:
"They have Yeshua's DNA and his mother's so they can figure out God's DNA." I might add "It appears that God's DNA isn't much different from Joseph's".
The only thing that many aggressive evangeos know about DNA is that it magically "got some crim'nals outta jail". Is that what worked for Paul?. Use this to fire quips!
BRY

The basic problem is that the critiques get lost, and the original is cited forever by generations of the gullible. Which is why it took so long for the creationism movement to be opposed during it's 70's re-emergence.

By Mike Huben (not verified) on 13 Apr 2007 #permalink

I pray to Saint Gasoline to consider the possibility that a Rabbi Yeshua really did exist and that he was of the "school" of R. Hillel. The edited "gospels" seem to leave some of Hillel's sentiments intact. I think that there is a higher probability of THAT Yeshua having existed and been buried with his family than any "immaculate Conception" or "Assumption". The accretions authored by Saul borrowed from the Mithras cult that was well entrenched in the Roman Army. So, let this discovery fit your hand as a tool to lop off the God/ Savior cult seeking Dominion hereabouts in a manner that would scrap our Constitution.
BRY

Skeptic8: Yeah, but at what point do you give up on the thing? It is like the story:

"Guess what! Santa Claus is real! His real name is Steve Dudley, he lives in Miami, hates children and never buys gifts because he's too busy obsessing over his skinniness"