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Debunking the Discovery of Jesus’ Tomb

February 26, 2007

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Dear Friends,

Today, the director James Cameron of Titanic fame, is going to announce to the world what is being billed as one of the greatest archeological finds in the history of the world—the tomb of Jesus and his family.

What James Cameron has “dug up” is an archeological find from the early 1980s that came and went without much interest except, perhaps, to those in the archeological community. In the old tomb in Jerusalem, they found ten stone coffins (ossuaries) with the following names inscribed on six of the ten coffins:

With the recent success of the book, The da Vinci Code, and its wild assertion that Jesus and Mary were married and produced a child, the filmmaker is suggesting that there is now proof that this is true. The implications of this archeological find are said to be that Jesus did survive the crucifixion and that he did have a son with Mary Magdalene.

What evidence does he give? Well, since the evidence hasn’t been presented yet (the news conference is still several hours from now), we can’t say for sure. However, based on early reports, let me suggest what the evidence is going to be.

First, they are going to say something to the effect of “what are the odds that we would find this collection of names together in one tomb dating back to the first century?” They will pull out some amazingly high number like a million to one odds that this tomb with these exact names could be found. This is mathematical hocus-pocus. The answer is, statistically speaking, 100% that they will find this tomb with these names in it. Why? Because they did find a tomb with these names in it. You can’t project odds backwards. For example, what are the odds that the last US Presidential election would have two candidates with the exact names of John Kerry and George Bush? The answer is 100% because the last presidential election did have candidates with those two names. Now, if we project that in the future, we can legitimately project probabilities. What are the odds that the next US presidential election will have two candidates with the names Harvey Z. Finklestein and Shirley Q. Axelrod? Astronomical!

The truth is that the names found in the tomb are very common names of people in that day and time. If you didn’t have the historically shaky hypothesis in the first place that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, then you would do with this data exactly what the historians and archeologists have done with this data for the last 30 years which is nothing.

The next thing I suspect that these filmmakers are going to do is to try and tie the DNA evidence (if any) to Jesus. To my knowledge, despite the many claims that people have artifacts from Jesus (nails from the cross, his burial shroud, etc.), no one has any DNA of Jesus. They may be able to find DNA evidence that the person found in the tomb was a person of Semitic decent, but what would you expect to find in a tomb in Jerusalem from the first century?

This week we may be guilty of violating the principle of Proverbs 18:13 which says “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” However, it seems to me that we once again have an excellent opportunity to “give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you” but we have to be ready. When this announcement is made to the world, we can’t be caught flat-footed yet again. Weeks from now we will have all sorts of experts debunking this announcement, but in the mean time your friends, neighbors, co-workers and perhaps even brethren will be looking for answers. Who will provide them with answers? What an excellent opportunity to witness to the Hope of Israel! Let’s make the most of it.

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. (Isa. 6:8)

Have a great week,