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Technorati“The filmmakers are therefore suggesting that the body of Jesus lay decaying in a family tomb in Jerusalem at the same time the early Jerusalem church was expanding because of its belief in a resurrected Messiah,” Guthrie said in a statement released by Union following the Monday press conference. “Yet, we have no evidence from any ancient document, Christian or non-Christian, that points even to rumors that the body or bones of Jesus were there in Jerusalem.”
Guthrie added that both biblical and extra-biblical sources point to the brothers of Jesus, most notably James, as among the Christians of the first century.
“Yet, would James and the others not known of this family tomb and the body of Jesus there?” Guthrie asked. “As believers, his family members confess the resurrected Jesus. No opponent of Christianity points to the tomb. No followers of Jesus revere the tomb. There is no evidence – beyond the circumstantial evidence of exceedingly common names – that points to this as being the tomb of Jesus’ family. The name associations are interesting, but the evidence does not bear the weight of the proposition.”
At the press conference Monday, the panel also discussed their DNA research which was taken from Jesus’ and Mary Magdalene’s ossuary. From the mitochondrial DNA, they deduced that the two are not related to each other on the maternal side.
One may conclude that these two were married then, the panel continued, because only family members are allowed to be put inside the family tomb. Since they are not blood relations, they would have had to have been wedded.
However, there can still be a paternal link between the two that would rule this void. More research must be done on this case.
While the research cannot completely prove the tomb to be Jesus’ or that he had a marriage to Mary Magdalene and son named Judah, the panel believes it could provide evidence that would point towards that.
“Christians affirm that Jesus was fully God and fully human,” said Carney Matheson, Professor of Anthropology at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. “Don’t forget the ‘fully human.’”
The filmmaker and panelists asserted that they were not trying to discuss theological issues, but simply bring up facts that they had uncovered.
Some even brought up positive religious aspects that could result of the supposed discovery.
“We are not trying to undermine Christianity,” stressed Cameron. “What this film is that it celebrates the real life existence of these people, of this man who had a vision and communicated it in a virile way.”
Greg Thornbury, dean of Union University’s School of Christian Studies, however, questioned the motivation of the documentary’s producers, saying they may have been more motivated by financial gain than by a commitment to historical and archeological integrity.
“Trying to disprove the facts of Christianity has become a cottage industry,” Thornbury commented in the released statement by the university. “Take ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ for example, and the money it made for author Dan Brown. I’m sure that fact is not lost on James Cameron or the people at the Discovery Channel.”
More future research will be done in an attempt to strengthen the argument for Jesus’ family tomb, including more DNA analysis, excavation of the original tomb, and historical fact finding about Jesus’ life. Continue »
