You might have heard about the movie showing on the discovery channell about the “discovery” of Jesus’ tomb and the balsphemous conclusions they are drawing. The issue was raised in one secular forum I am a member of and below is my response regarding those claims:
Not being an expert on archaeology, can’t comment from an archeological point of view other than to say that there are a lot of "if"s in the “discovery” and that this is more of a theory than a fact. Also, I am intrigued by the fact that the “discoverers” are Jewish construction workers and that the director of the film is also Jewish. I say this because the reason why people reject the claims of the Bible is because they think the writers are religiously motivated. Who said 21st century construction workers and filmmakers can’t be religiously motivated?
Honestly I am more suspicious of the motives of the “discoverers” and the filmmakers who make tons of money out of this than the motives of the apostles who wrote the bible who had nothing to gain but were persecuted, imprisoned and all of them martyred. Motive is a key element even in court cases.
From a theological point of view and its impact on the Christian faith, I think this "discovery" will fade into non-existence in a matter of weeks. It will fade out when the discovery channell finds something else to talk about. In my opinion there is not much this one "discovery" can do to a religion that has been around for more than 2000 years. There is a probability theory that says how long something has been around is an indication of how long it is going to last. I think that applies here. Christianity has been around for more than 2000 years and this is not the first archaeological attack on it. Every story in the Bible has been attacked on archaeological grounds for the past 2000 years but none of those attacks have succeeded. The bible is the most hated, most criticized, most ridiculed book on earth. It has been banned, burned, persecuted etc but amazingly enough it is still at the top of the best seller list after 2000 years. It is the only 2000 years old book that is still in circulation. The rest of them have either vanished (90%) or are in the museum doing nothing (10%).
Personally, I like this hype about this “discovery” and movie because it opens opportunities for me to talk about Jesus such as this one.
Finally, as hard as I try to remain objective, I admit that I have a bias for Jesus. Can’t help it. He is my life. |