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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6397373.stm
From CTV Newsnet......
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070226/jesus_tomb_060226/20070226?hub=TopStories
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6397373.stm
Jesus tomb found, says film-maker
Ossuary found in Jerusalem
A documentary claims this is the ossuary of Jesus Christ
Jesus had a son named Judah and was buried alongside Mary Magdalene, according to a new documentary by Hollywood film director James Cameron.
The film examines a tomb found near Jerusalem in 1980 which producers say belonged to Jesus and his family.
Speaking in New York, the Oscar-winning Titanic director said statistical tests and DNA analysis backed this view.
But Mr Cameron's claim has been attacked by archaeologists and theologians as unfounded.
Archaeologists said that the burial cave was probably that of a Jewish family with similar names to that of Jesus.
But Mr Cameron said the combination of names found on the tombs convinced him of their heritage.
Samples tested
Israeli construction workers building an apartment complex in Jerusalem's East Talpiot district first uncovered 10 of the 2,000-year-old ossuaries - or limestone coffins - in a tomb in March 1980.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, six of those coffins were marked with the names Mary; Matthew; Jesua son of Joseph; Mary; Jofa (Joseph, Jesus' brother); and Judah son of Jesua.
Another grave said by producers to be of Mary Magdalene convinced researchers of the truth of their find, Mr Cameron said at a New York news conference.
Unveiling his documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus, Mr Cameron said the chances of finding that combination of names together was like finding a grave marked Ringo next to others marked John, Paul and George.
"Mariamene is Mary Magdalene - that's the Ringo, that's what sets this whole film in motion," he said.
Christian contradiction?
The documentary asserts that tests on samples from two of the coffins show Jesus and Mary Magdalene were likely to have been buried in them and were a couple.
The film-makers used this finding to claim that the coffin marked "Judah son of Jesua" contains the son of Jesus and Mary.
But they said the discovery of the tomb does not undermine the key Christian belief that Jesus was resurrected three days after his death.
Academic Stephen Pfann, a scholar at the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem, said he did not expect Christians to accept the film's findings.
"I don't think that Christians are going to buy into this," said Mr Pfann, who was interviewed by the film-makers.
"But sceptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
Findings refuted
Israeli archaeologist Amos Kloner, who was among the first to examine the tomb when it was first discovered, said the names marked on the coffins were very common at the time.
"I don't accept the news that it was used by Jesus or his family," he told the BBC News website.
"The documentary filmmakers are using it to sell their film."
Mr Cameron showed two of the coffins at the news conference.
"It doesn't get bigger than this," he said in an earlier press release.
"We've done our homework; we've made the case; and now it's time for the debate to begin."
Local residents said they were pleased with the attention the tomb has drawn.
"It will mean our house prices will go up because Christians will want to live here," one woman said.
From CTV Newsnet......
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070226/jesus_tomb_060226/20070226?hub=TopStories
Cameron defends Jesus tomb documentary
Updated Mon. Feb. 26 2007 12:42 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Oscar-winning director James Cameron is defending his controversial new documentary, which claims Jesus may have been buried with a wife and son, against charges the film was trying to undermine Christianity.
"I think there will certainly be those that will say we are attempting to in some way undermine Christianity, but that's really very, very far from the case," Cameron said at a Monday morning press conference in New York announcing the documentary, "The Lost Tomb of Jesus."
Instead, the documentary that follows the discovery of the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family celebrates their existence, Cameron said.
"What this film and the investigation that the film shows is able to bring to light is for the first time, tangible, physical, archeological and in some cases, forensic evidence, that can be analyzed scientifically in the same manner that one would in a criminal investigation in terms of DNA evidence," Cameron said.
The message that Jesus delivered 2,000 years ago resounds even today, said Cameron, the documentary's producer.
"My feeling is that his message of compassion, humility, love and forgiveness is every bit as much needed now in this divisive, materialistic and war-torn world," said Cameron, who won the Academy Award for Best Director in 1998 for Titanic.
In their documentary, Cameron and the director, Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, say that the tomb of Jesus Christ and his family has been found, a claim that would have profound implications for the Christian faith.
"This has been a three-year journey that seems more incredible than fiction," Jacobovici, an Emmy-award winning filmmaker, said earlier. "The idea of possibly finding the tomb of Jesus and several members of his family, with compelling scientific evidence, is beyond anything I could have imagined."
The film suggests that ossuaries once containing the bones of Jesus and his family are now stored in a warehouse belonging to the Israel Antiquities Authority in Bet Shemesh, outside Jerusalem.
The tomb where the remains were found was unearthed in the Talpiot neighbourhood of Jerusalem during the construction of an apartment building in 1980.
CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer described the site as a concrete slab in the ground behind an apartment building, which is about half-a metre by one-metre in size.
During the excavation, archeologists found 10 ossuaries and three skulls. Six of the ossuaries had names inscribed into them: Jesus son of Joseph, Judah son of Jesus, Maria, Mariamne, Joseph and Matthew.
At the time, the finding raised few alarms, as these had been common names at the time of Jesus.
According to Cameron and Jacobovici, the bones discovered in the limestone boxes in 1980 were quickly reburied, following the Jewish traditions.
Years later, a BBC crew that stumbled across the collection in a store room belonging to the Israeli Antiquities Authorities began work program that focused on the tomb.
Jacobovici's documentary uses scientific methods, including DNA testing, statistical analysis and forensic examination, not available to the BBC 11 years ago.
If the claims are correct, and the tombs belonged to the holiest family in Christendom, the discovery could shake the foundations of the Christian faith with the speculation that Jesus fathered a child with Mary Magdalene.
Canadian scientists worked on project
DNA tests conducted for the documentary at Lakehead University on two ossuaries -- one inscribed Jesus son of Joseph and the other Mariamne, or Mary -- confirm that the two were not related by blood, so they were likely married.
"Perhaps Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married as the DNA results from the Talpiot ossuaries suggest and perhaps their union was kept secret to protect a potential dynasty - a secret hidden through the ages," narrator Ron White says in the documentary.
"A secret we just may be able to uncover in the holy family tomb."
But church representatives and archeologists are rejecting the claims of the documentary, which was directed by Jacobovici.
"I think this is more fanciful and absurd theorizing. Every Christian knows that Jesus, the son of God and man, died and rose again on Easter Sunday," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesperson for the Catholic Church in New York.
"No alleged DNA test or Hollywood film is going to change that," he told the New York Post.
Traditional Christian beliefs maintain that Jesus was physically resurrected to heaven while more liberal interpretations have permitted for a spiritual ascension.
"The historical, religious and archaeological evidence show that the place where Christ was buried is the Church of the Resurrection," Attallah Hana, a Greek Orthodox clergyman in Jerusalem, told The Associated Press.
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 told AP. "But skeptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."
When asked how possible the claims are, Pfann said they were highly unlikely.
"On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half," he said.
Pfann is even unsure that the name "Jesus" on the caskets was interpreted properly. He thinks it is more likely the name "Hanun," as ancient Semitic script is notoriously difficult to decipher.
The claims follow years of growing interest in the private life of Jesus, fuelled by the 2003 Dan Brown novel "The Da Vinci Code," which was made into a movie last year.
In Brown's novel, which was denounced by church figures around the world, Jesus is said to have married Mary Magdalene and sired a daughter.
Noted Christian scholar Michele Piccirillo, who is the director of the Franciscan Archaeological Institute, thinks the faith of millions of people is being questioned for profit.
'Before archaeology was used for politics. Now archaeology is just to do money," he told CTV's Janis Mackey Frayer.
He also added, 'There are some people interested in destroying the faith of others and that's not good.'
Jacobovici has said the findings should not threaten anyone's belief in the resurrection, as he does not argue that Jesus did not ascend to heaven at least spiritually.
But critics say the theory holds no merit.
Amos Kloner, professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, who was the archeologist who first revealed the discovery, believes the cave and its contents hold no significance.
Kloner told Mackey Frayer that the names found on the tombs are common ones at the time.
"These are the most common names among Jews in these centuries," Kloner, who published his findings in 1996, told CTV News.
"It's very interesting," he said of all of the names of Jesus' family being found on ossuaries in the same cave, "but it's not a convincing proof that it's the family of Jesus." He knows of at least two other ossuaries that bear the name of Jesus, son of Joseph.
Calculating the odds
In The Lost Tomb, however, University of Toronto statistician Andre Feuerverger calculates that the chances of the names being found together are 600 to one.
He says that the Maria on one of the ossuaries is the mother of the Jesus found on another box, that Mariamne is his wife and that Joseph -- inscribed as the nickname Jose -- is his brother.
Jesus' mother was known after his death as Maria, the Latin form of Mary, as more Romans became followers. Mariamne is the Greek form of Mary. Mary Magdalene is believed to have spoken and preached in Greek. Jose was the nickname used for Jesus' little brother.
Furthermore, the tomb is the only site where ossuaries have been found with the names Mariamne and Jose, the documentary's creators claim.
Another famous ossuary, inscribed James son of Joseph brother of Jesus, is also featured in the documentary.
Of the 10 ossuaries found at Talpiot, one later went missing. Many experts have speculated the coffin is that of James, which was put on public display at the Royal Ontario Museum.
Furthermore, forensic testing of the patina on the Jesus ossuary and that of James concluded they came from the same tomb.
Feuerverger says that if James is added to the equation, there is a 30,000 to one chance that the Talpiot Tomb belonged to Jesus' family.
Another calculation, commissioned by James Tabor, chair of the department of religion studies at the University of North Carolina, puts the odds at one in 42 million.
Another researcher, whose work has focused on the Middle East, biblical anthropologist Joe Zias, has rejected the 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," Zias told CBS.
Archaeologists also balk at the filmmaker's claim that the James Ossuary might have originated from the same cave.
In 2005, Israel charged five suspects with forgery in connection with the infamous bone box.
"I don't think the James Ossuary came from the same cave," Dan Bahat, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University told AP. "If it were found there, the man who made the forgery would have taken something better. He would have taken Jesus."
The $4-million documentary will air on Canada's Vision TV on March 6 and two days earlier on Discovery U.S.
The companion book, "The Jesus Family Tomb" (HarperCollins) by Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino, has just been released.
With a report from CTV's Middle East Bureau Chief Janis Mackey Frayer in Jerusalem and files from The Associated Press
