Possible earliest evidence of Christianity resurrected from ancient tomb
Documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, co-author of the new book "The Jesus Discovery," discuss an archaeological discovery related to Jesus, during a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. Jacobovici and co-author James Tabor, a biblical scholar, showed replicas of ossuaries, or bone boxes, they examined using a special fiberoptic robotic camera in a Jerusalem tomb. The boxes have etchings that the researchers believe may be early christian symbols. A film about the discovery will air on the Discovery Channel in Spring 2012. / AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
In an ancient tomb located below a modern condominium building in Jerusalem, archaeologists have found ossuaries -- bone boxes for the dead -- bearing engravings that could represent the earliest archaeological evidence of Christians ever found.
The tomb has been dated to before A.D. 70, so if its engravings are indeed early Christian, they were most likely made by some of Jesus' earliest followers, according to the excavators.
One of the limestone ossuaries bears an inscription in Greek that includes a reference to "Divine Jehovah" raising someone up. A second ossuary has an image that appears to be a large fish with a stick figure in its mouth. The excavators believe the image represents the story of Jonah, the biblical prophet who was swallowed by a fish or whale and then released.
Together both the inscription and the image of the fish represent the Christian belief in resurrection from death. While images of the Jonah story became common on more recent Christian tombs, they do not appear in first-century art, and iconographic images like this on ossuaries are extremely rare. [10 Weird Ways We Deal with the Dead]
"If anyone had claimed to find either a statement about resurrection or a Jonah image in a Jewish tomb of this period I would have said impossible -- until now," James D. Tabor, professor and chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and one of the excavators, said in a news release issued by the university.
The excavators acknowledge the discovery and their interpretation are likely to be controversial.
This tomb was originally uncovered in 1981, but the original excavators were forced to leave by Orthodox Jewish groups who oppose the excavation of Jewish tombs. The tomb was then resealed and buried beneath the condominium complex in the neighborhood of East Talpiot. Almost two decades later, Tabor and colleagues got a license to go back into the tomb; however, because of the condos on top of it and the threat of protests from Orthodox Jewish groups, they took an unconventional route into the tomb.
They inserted a robotic arm, developed for this project, carrying high-definition cameras, through holes drilled in the basement floor of the building. The cameras photographed the ossuaries inside from all sides.
This tomb is located adjacent to another one, uncovered in 1980, that contained ossuaries with names some have associated with Jesus and his family. That tomb was thoroughly excavated at the time.
An article by Tabor describing the discovery is scheduled for publication online at The Bible and Interpretation today (Feb. 28). A book, "The Jesus Discovery: The New Archaeological Find That Reveals the Birth of Christianity" (Simon & Schuster, 2012), co-authored by Tabor and filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, is also being published today. Later this spring, a documentary on the subject will air on the Discovery Channel.
You can follow LiveScience senior writer Wynne Parry on Twitter @Wynne_Parry. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.
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Yes you are correct, we have free will to choose that which is good or that which bad, either for ourselves or for everyone else. This free will allows us all to do whatever we want but, in doing that, we must be prepared to accept the consequences. Two things over which we have no choice are being born and finally dying.
I am an older person who does not fear death or what will happen subsequently, because I have no control over that. That one statement puts a lie to your first paragraph (Everyone is so worried). Do folk in general not care what happens to them and theirs while they are alive? Is there no one to care about you?
Worship is a nice word synominous with love and reverance. Do you infer that because you have free will you cannot love another, because of that free will? (Its interesting that you use "he" in reference to God as you do not believe why give God a gender?)
If I understand para 3 you say its irresponsible to allow children to choose. We can only learn so much from guidance some things can only be learned from our mistakes. Martinets' remove free will and still put temptation before us; if we accept that temptation and this is considered OK, we should not have held the Nuremberg Trials post WWII.
Para 4 we have a brain which allows us to learn right from wrong, admittedly some learn this skill better than others. The Jews were given 10 commandments the Yanks a Bill of Rights everyone has a social infrastructure that provides guidance. We cannot blame a Deity for our own mistakes, even when our infrastructure is designed and ruled by a Martinet. Remember here we can do what we like as long as we are prepared to accept the consequences.
Are the Laws of a land not found in books written by man and modified by man even further as time goes by. This is true for all the arts and sciences they need to written by man so children may follow. Man in this context means Mankind and is not a gender.
The ultimate paragraph has been heard since man started to think: that does not make it correct. If our world and cosmos is made of Matter and Science proves the existance of Anti Matter, is it not possible that there could be two forces at work, one for good and one for bad? I believe in Light & Dark, Ying & Yang, Good & Evil, Love & Hate the existence of these does not disprove the reality of God. I believe they support my view that God gave us the will to choose in this life maybe in the next we will not need that choice.
Do not shut your mind to possibility.