JERUSALEM, Feb. 26, 2007
Scholars Dismiss Jesus Documentary
Film Claims Bones Found In Jerusalem Tomb Are Those Of Jesus Christ
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Play CBS Video Video Are These The Bones Of Jesus? The producers of a Discovery Channel show claim to have found the remains of Jesus. Mark Phillips reports on an assertion that's drawing skeptical reviews from a lot of scholars and clergy.
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Video Film Challenges Christianity Receiving sharp criticism from Catholic leaders and some archeologists, a documentary film is challenging some of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. Mark Phillips reports.
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Video Experts Debate Jesus Tomb "Lost Tomb Of Jesus" director Simcha Jacabovici and author Bruce Feiler discuss with Hannah Storm the evidence in the documentary that some say challenges Christianity.
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This video still shows excavated ancient tombs near the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiyot. (CBS)
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A page of a book by Israeli archeologist Amos Kloner shows images of ossuaries found in a cave in southern Jerusalem in 1980, Sunday Feb. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
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A Christian lights candles outside the Edicule, the site traditionally believed by most Christians to be the tomb of Jesus Christ, in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, April 1, 2005. (AP)
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Interactive Eye on Religion Find out more about the beliefs, practices and history of some of the world's major religions.
James Cameron's "The Lost Tomb of Christ," which the Discovery Channel will run on March 4, argues that 10 ancient ossuaries — small caskets used to store bones — discovered in a suburb of Jerusalem in 1980 may have contained the bones of Jesus, according to a press release issued by the Discovery Channel.
In fact, the astounding claim is that the entire Holy Family was buried in a vault, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. Astounding, critics say, because Jesus' family was famously poor and such tombs were the fashion of the wealthy.
One of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son. And the very fact that Jesus had an ossuary would contradict the Christian belief that he was resurrected and ascended to heaven.
But Philips reports that, although archeologists have long argued over the factual and historic accuracy of Christianity's version of history, in this case, the archeological establishment has lined up to label this claim as bunk.
Amos Kloner, the first archaeologist to examine the site, said the idea fails to hold up by archaeological standards but makes for profitable television.
"They just want to get money for it," Kloner said.
(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Cameron said his critics should withhold comment until they see his film.
"I'm not a theologist. I'm not an archaeologist. I'm a documentary film maker," he said.
The tomb bears the names Jesus, Mary and Joseph and one of the caskets even bears the title, "Judah, son of Jesus," hinting that Jesus may have had a son. But scientists argue the names were extremely common during that time period, and in no way prove the Jesus buried at the site was Jesus Christ.
Another researcher whose work has focused on the Middle East, biblical anthropologist Joe Zias, has dismissed Cameron's claims as "dishonest".
"It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus, he was known as Jesus of Nazareth, not Jesus of Jerusalem, and if the family was wealthy enough to afford a tomb, which they probably weren't, it would have been in Nazareth, not here in Jerusalem," he said.
He said the appearance of the names proved nothing.
Cameron told NBC'S "Today" show that statisticians found "in the range of a couple of million to one in favor of it being them." Simcha Jacobovici, the Toronto filmmaker who directed the documentary, said the implications "are huge."
"But they're not necessarily the implications people think they are. For example, some believers are going to say, well this challenges the resurrection. I don't know why, if Jesus rose from one tomb, he couldn't have risen from the other tomb," Jacobovici told "Today."
Most Christians believe Jesus' body was laid for three days at the site of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem's Old City.
The burial site identified in Cameron's documentary is in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiyot, nowhere near the church.
The film's claims have also raised the ire of Christian leaders in the Holy Land.
"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," said Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem. The documentary, he said, "contradicts the religious principles and the historic and spiritual principles that we hold tightly to."
Stephen Pfann, a biblical scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem who was interviewed in the documentary, said the film's hypothesis holds little weight.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," Pfann said. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
"How possible is it?" Pfann said. "On a scale of one through 10 — 10 being completely possible — it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half."
After its debut in New York, "The Lost Tomb of Christ" will be shown on the international Discovery Channel, Canada's Vision, Channel 4 in Britain and Channel 8 in Israel.
This is the second time The Discovery Channel has been involved in a disputed claim about an ancient tomb, Phillips reports. The man at the center of the previous case is now facing trial for forgery.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 685 CommentsDNA Proof, where are you going to get DNA to test against those dry bones? And what would that prove.
Jesus was a living man...with physical needs and societal responsibility. Why is no one looking at the reality of how much the bible has been changed by human hand since the first scrolls where written. Why does no one even remember that Mary Magdelene was NEVER a prostitute.
Don't forget it is human beings who changed that fact inbelief through a subtle change of fact thru translation by editing the bible itself. Please don't forget that this.
If the bible has been edited over 14 times, by different times, by different individuals, with different social agendas...can it really not be dirtied by the human sinners that re-worked it?
People ask questions! Think for yourselves. We are ALL the sons and daughters of GOD...not just Jesus...do we not have a small peice of god within our selves? Do we not each find god through our free will and the power of knowledge and choice? Is that not our own divinity?
If you stop asking questions...you will always have to settle for someone elses translation of the truth.Don't forget the truth behind the editing and translating process.
So, whats whole deal with the fake jesus bones? They can't find his bones, because he rose from the dead! Does the bible lie? Of course not! problem solved.
blablablablabla
we are shaking in our booties now
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